Hong Kong in Shock as China’s Xi Jinping Goes for ‘Nuclear Option’
With his plan to impose sweeping antisedition legislation on Hong Kong, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has revealed a willingness to alter the onetime British colony’s special status as a self-governing city with a speed and scope that has surprised many, from pro-democracy activists to diplomats to businesspeople.
At a meeting of mainland China’s National People’s Congress last week, authorities said they would go around Hong Kong’s own legislature and draft measures against secession, foreign influence and terrorism as Beijing seeks to curb protests by Hong Kong citizens seeking more freedom and autonomy.
The move suggests Mr. Xi is shifting gears in his approach to Hong Kong and many now anticipate an accelerating effort to control other areas fundamental to Hong Kong’s free-market identity, from its educational system and free press to its courts and immigration policies.
“In the future, Beijing will control not only the administration of Hong Kong but its ideology,” said Johnny Lau, a longtime Hong Kong political analyst and journalist.
Over the weekend, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to oppose the move and the growing influence of mainland China. Amid mass arrests, protesters called for more rallies, potentially reviving a movement that had quieted down during the coronavirus pandemic.
China has said it would allow its secret police and other security agencies to operate openly in Hong Kong for the first time as part of still unclarified new enforcement measures that will accompany new security rules.
“The people of Hong Kong should prepare to cope with the varieties of arbitrary detention that have been inflicted on compatriots elsewhere in China,” wrote Jerome Cohen, director of the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at New York University and author of an influential blog on law in China and Asia.
Chinese authorities are taking pains to say the security legislation doesn’t mean the end of Hong Kong’s special status under “one country, two systems,” which has underpinned the city’s role as an international financial hub and a crucial channel for Chinese companies and provinces to borrow money.
Chinese officials have said that the measures only target a minority of troublemakers and their foreign helpers seeking to undermine China’s sovereignty. Instead, they said, the legislation would enhance Hong Kong’s role as a trading hub by stamping out possible terrorism.
“There is absolutely no need to panic or worry that you may be unfavorably impacted,” China’s foreign affairs commissioner in Hong Kong, Xie Feng, told a packed room of international diplomats, business groups and journalists on Monday.
Hong Kong’s courts would remain independent, for example, he said. But he couched his assurances with a warning: “In particular, do not be a rumormonger yourself, or join the anti-China forces in stigmatizing or demonizing the legislation.”
Hong Kong’s free press, which operates in contrast to mainland China’s censored newspapers, could be hit by the new measures. While Mr. Xie said press freedom would be enhanced by the legislation, he also warned journalists not to hide behind assertions of free press to subvert the state.
In recent days, China’s propaganda outlets have attacked the publisher of Hong Kong’s popular pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily for supporting the protests.
“HK people have 2 choices: emigrate or stay to fight to the end,” the publisher, Jimmy Lai, said on Twitter after the security measures were announced. “I’ll fight to the end. HK is my home.”
China has already exerted authority over journalists entering Hong Kong, previously the responsibility of city immigration officials. In March, Beijing kicked a group of American journalists out of mainland China, including reporters from The Wall Street Journal, and banned them from Hong Kong as well.
Education is another local concern. Beijing has sought for decades to include pro-China coursework in local schools, an idea opposed by many in Hong Kong as propaganda. The initiative was scrapped after an earlier round of protests. It could easily be revived, many here believe.
Some Hong Kong pro-democracy activists believe that the city’s financial importance for China may ultimately limit Beijing’s ability to intervene in local affairs if its actions undermine global confidence in Hong Kong as a safe and transparent place to do business.
Hong Kong’s stock market took its biggest one-day drop since 2015 after Beijing’s plan was announced, as local business groups expressed concern that China’s interventions in Hong Kong could undermine the city’s free market ethos.
“Hong Kong is an important place, sustained by its international status. I think there is room to organize and oppose these actions,” said Nathan Law, a pro-democracy politician. “Although all this is very scary because we, the high profile activists, are the ones being targeted.”
The U.S. is reviewing whether Hong Kong retains its semiautonomous status in the wake of Beijing’s plan. A finding that it has lost its semiautonomy could prompt the U.S. Congress to take punitive action, from removing the city’s special trade status to imposing sanctions.
Underscoring the perception that the mainland is calling the shots in Hong Kong, the city’s unpopular China-backed chief executive, Carrie Lam, gave a press conference on Friday in which she supported the new laws while admitting that she didn’t have any details on what they would say. The wording of the legislation is still being completed in Beijing.
Many in Hong Kong had expected Beijing to rely on the city’s lawmaking body, which is stacked with pro-Beijing politicians, to introduce national-security legislation. Imposing it by fiat was seen as a less likely “nuclear option,” since it undermines the principle of self-governance.
China had urged Hong Kong to pass similar laws on its own for decades. Mr. Xie, the foreign affairs commissioner, said Beijing has the authority to directly introduce such laws under Hong Kong’s mini constitution and is acting now because the issues of national security issue are urgent.
An early sign that Beijing would shift its stance was the government’s decision this year to appoint retirement-aged Communist Party enforcers to key posts responsible for relations with the city.
Xia Baolong, a 67-year-old hard-liner who once oversaw the destruction of churches in China’s most Christian region, was named to direct the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. He is a close ally of Mr. Xi, serving under him in Zhejiang province in the early 2000s when China’s leader was a rising party secretary.
Under Mr. Xia came the 65-year-old Luo Huining, whose résumé as a former provincial-level Communist Party official made him an unusually powerful figure to take over at the separate Hong Kong liaison office.
Unlike past holders of the posts, the men had almost no previous experience or links to the city.
In April, Mr. Xia lambasted Hong Kong lawmakers for moving too slowly to pass a law outlawing booing during China’s national anthem, a common occurrence in Hong Kong stadiums. He accused at least one lawmaker of committing a crime of “malicious filibustering.”
Legislators said the complaint trampled a key tenet of “one country, two systems,” prohibiting mainland officials from intervening in Hong Kong’s legislative affairs.
Mr. Luo’s office affirmed that the officials could say what they want.
“In representing the central government, [the offices] have the right to exercise supervision and express solemn attitudes on affairs regarding Hong Kong and the mainland,” it said.
The next month, China said it would impose the security measures without involving Hong Kong lawmakers at all.
Photo: A protester was detained by Hong Kong police on Sunday as democracy protests picked up again following Beijing’s introduction of legislation governing the territory. - MIGUEL CANDELA/SOPA IMAGES/ZUMA PRESS
