China Solidifies Grip On Hong Kong, Establishes National Security Office

By: Will Reynolds

Photo courtesy of Studio Incendo

Louisville—Beijing is continuing forward in the solidification of its controversial national security law, despite condemnation from pro-Democracy lawmakers and the international community. 

“It sounds hyperbolic, but anything goes in Hong Kong these days. Reign of terror. Orwellian Hong Kong. They will do anything to frighten Hongkongers into silence and inaction,” pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told the Hong Kong Free Press. 

The National People’s Congress in Beijing reviewed the draft of the new national security law this past weekend. A key aspect of the draft law states that the Central People’s Government will create a national security office in Hong Kong “obligated to analyze and appraise [the] national security situation in the HKSAR (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region)”, per Xinhua English. 

Beijing’s security office has the stated intent of collecting intelligence information which can be used to prosecute those Beijing deems as a threat to national security. However, with the new national security law prevailing over local law of Hong Kong, many worry this would allow Beijing the ability to indefinitely detain any and all persons challenging their agenda. 

“The word ‘supervise’ on the mainland is beyond giving advice. It is about giving advice that I expect you to follow, and you simply cannot disobey in theory. So, it is like setting up a body beyond the chief executive. How can Hong Kong retain a high degree of autonomy?” Johannes Chan Man-mun, the law dean at the University of Hong Kong, voices concern in line with many pro-Democracy lawmakers and activists throughout Hong Kong. 

In the midst of the new national security law’s announcement, a poll carried out by Reuters interviewing over 1,000 Hong Kong citizens revealed a decrease in support for the pro-Democracy protest movement. Whereas 41% of those polled in December, 2019, voiced strong support for the protests, that number has now slid to 34%, with those strongly opposed to the protest movement rising from 21% to 28%. 

Hong Kong protests and recent attempts to organize large-scale strikes by pro-Democracy groups have significantly less support than at the protests’ beginnings. Recent demonstrations have attendances of hundreds, in comparison to the hundreds of thousands at the movement’s peak. Police are also clamping down on recent protests as quickly as possible. 

Despite the existence of few public details, the Hong Kong government has spent nearly $1 million calling for support of the new national security legislation through advertisements in train stations, on busses and trams, and on large billboards throughout the territory. Many of the advertisements simply read, “National Security Law. Preserve One Country, Two Systems. Restore Stability.” 

Beijing has shown no intention of slowing the implementation process of the new national security law. At the conclusion of the 19th session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in Beijing, The Chairman of the Standing Committee, Li Zhansu touted the new national security law as, “a fundamental solution to maintain long-term prosperity and stability in Hong Kong and ensure the steady and sustained development of the cause for “one country, two systems.”

The European Parliament passed a resolution this past week with a vote of 565 in favor, 34 against, and 62 abstentions, calling on the EU to file a case against China in the International Court of Justice at The Hague, should the new national security law be implemented.