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The Chinese authorities in Hong Kong responded to criticism from the United States and Britain of a proposed new national security law on the island, which they said would limit freedoms there.
Massive pro-democracy protests swept Hong Kong in 2019, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets to demand greater freedoms.
In response, Beijing imposed a national security law that punishes four major crimes: separatist activity, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, with sentences of up to life imprisonment.
Hong Kong officials announced last month that another local security law was needed to fill some “loopholes.”
Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Lamm confirmed that he had not heard any objections to a proposed new law during a month of public consultations on it that ended on Wednesday.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller expressed in a statement earlier his country’s concern “in particular about the Hong Kong authorities’ proposal to adopt broad and ambiguous definitions of state secrets and foreign interference that could be used to eliminate dissent.”
Miller added that Hong Kong officials may apply this law “extraterritorially in their ongoing campaign of cross-border repression.”
Source: Agence France-Presse
2024-03-04 10:27:10