#Beijing tightens grip on Hong Kong with new security law

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Police stand at a metro station near a pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong on June 12, 2020.
Reuters

Hong Kong can kiss its independence goodbye, thanks to a new national security law that makes a mockery of Beijing’s promise to grant autonomy to the city for 50 years after it was handed back from Britain in 1997.

A new national security council will be established in Hong Kong to enforce the legislation, according to the official Xinhua news agency. It will be nominally run by Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam under the supervision of a new central government commission in Beijing, Reuters reported. An adviser from Beijing will also sit on the new Hong Kong body.

New police and prosecution units will be formed to investigate and enforce the law that is officially aimed only at “troublemakers” who threaten national security.

But Hong Kongers fear the new law is just a way for mainland China to assert a crushing force on the city.

“From these initial details, this new law presents unprecedented legal questions that we will have to confront in coming years,” Simon Young, a barrister and professor at the University of Hong Kong’s law school, told Reuters.

Young said there was too much “broad supremacy” over current and future laws in Hong Kong.

The new law is expected to take effect sometime before the Sept. 6 Legislative Council elections in Hong Kong.