Communist China is setting up a new security apparatus in Hong Kong to crush the pro-democracy movement, Chinese state media on Saturday revealed. The planned “special bureau” will “investigate and prosecute crimes considered threatening to national security,” the Associated Press reported.
The Beijing-controlled agency is part of a “National Security Law” passed last month by China’s National People’s Congress, the country’s Communist Party-controlled top legislative body. According to new rules, “specific cases would not be tried under Hong Kong’s separate legal system, but under mainland laws,” Australian public broadcaster ABC reported.
The proposed security law violates the autonomy promised by Communist China under the “one country, two systems” policy while acquiring the territory from Britain in 1997.
The Associated Press reported China’s planned security apparatus:
China plans to establish a special bureau in Hong Kong to investigate and prosecute crimes considered threatening to national security, according to details of a controversial new national security law Beijing is imposing on the semi-autonomous territory.In addition, bodies in all Hong Kong government departments, from finance to immigration, will be directly answerable to the central government in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.The announcement increases concerns that China’s communist government will continue to tighten its grip on Hong Kong. Beijing has said it is determined to press ahead with the national security legislation — which has been strongly criticized as undermining the Asian financial hub’s legal and political institutions — despite heavy criticism from within Hong Kong and abroad.
The measures tighten Beijing’s grip on Hong Kong and virtually end the remnants of freedom enjoyed by the region under the British rule.
With Communist China moving fast to absorb Hong Kong, the U.S. plans to revoke the special economic status granted to the territory. The decision could end the era of prosperity which began under British administration.
The region has lost its constitutionally-enshrined autonomy, the U.S. State Department believes. “Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as U.S. laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late last month. “No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” he added.
Communist China has little support on the ground. In 2019 Hong Kong elections, pro-Beijing candidates won only 60 out of 452 seats, losing control of 17 out of 18 city councils. The humiliating defeat only intensified China’s suppression of the pro-democracy movement.
In light of the Chinese clampdown, neighboring Taiwan has offered refuge to Hong Kong dissidents. Britain also showed willingness to accept close to 3 million Hong Kong residents if Beijing imposes the security law. The United Kingdom will make “one of the biggest changes in our visa system in history,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised on June 3.
“China reveals details of new Hong Kong national security law”
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