New York Times Reports On Hong Kong’s Security Law

A NY Times article on the subject is always worth a read. One of the few newspapers to actually watch what’s been happening in Hong Kong over the last decade.

 

The legislation grants Beijing broad powers to crack down on a variety of political crimes, including meting out life imprisonment for “grave” offenses. But the law is rife with ambiguities.

The sweeping new national security law that China imposed on Hong Kong, aimed at stamping out opposition to the ruling Communist Party in the former British colony, is as “devastating” as some critics feared, a human-rights activist said on Wednesday.

Conceived in secrecy and passed on Tuesday without serious input from Hong Kong authorities, the law sets up a vast security apparatus in the territory and gives Beijing broad powers to crack down on a variety of political crimes, including separatism and collusion.

In what initially appeared to be an early test of the law, a man was arrested on Wednesday after he unfurled a Hong Kong flag during demonstrations and the police said on Twitter that he had been detained for “violating the #NationalSecurityLaw.” It was “the first arrest made since the law has come into force,” the police said. But a closer look at the banner appeared to show words that translated to “No to” in small letters and “Hong Kong Independence” in bigger type. It was unclear if the police were aware.

The law is likely to usher in a new era for Hong Kong, experts say, in which civil liberties are tightly constrained and loyalty to the party is paramount. “All in all, this is a takeover of Hong Kong,” said Jerome A. Cohen, a New York University law professor who specializes in the Chinese legal system.

Read full article. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/30/world/asia/hong-kong-security-law-explain.html