Hong Kong
China was approaching Sunday on the adoption of a controversial national security law in Hong Kong, national legislators once again studying the text accused of wanting to muzzle the opposition in the autonomous territory.
For its detractors, the text risks undermining the autonomy and freedoms of the territory.
–AFP
–
Beijing and the Hong Kong executive assure that the controversial national security law will restore stability in the former British colony, which was returned to China in 1997 and shaken last year by monster protests against the central government. For critics of the law, including the pro-democracy opposition of Hong Kong, the United States, the G7 countries and the European Union (EU), the text risks undermining the autonomy and freedoms of territory.
–
The bill has been submitted since Sunday to the legislators of the standing committee of the national parliament, who had already studied it for the first time in June, said the official agency Chine nouvelle. The present meeting of members of this body submitted to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will last three days. A vote is expected a priori Monday or Tuesday. No new details were given on the content of the text.
–
The law targets separatism, terrorism, subversion and collusion with foreigners, and a “national security body” under the central government is expected to be established in Hong Kong, China said in June. Since its handover, the territory has enjoyed a large autonomy from mainland China. Hong Kong people, for example, enjoy freedom of expression and independent justice.
–
Article 23 of the “Basic Law”, which has served as a mini-constitution in Hong Kong since 1997, provides that the region will adopt a law prohibiting “treason, secession, sedition (and) subversion”. The Legislative Council (LegCo, the Hong Kong parliament) had already tried to pass such legislation in 2003, but gave up in the face of demonstrations in the city streets.
–
(AFP)
–
