China announced that it will hold another three-day meeting at the end of this month, a day after it gave more details about a new national security law for Hong Kong.
The standing committee of China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), will convene for three days beginning on June 28 in the capital Beijing, according to a June 21 report by Chinese state-run media Xinhua. According to the meeting agenda, the committee will discuss drafting of a patent law bill and an export control bill.
On May 28, the NPC conducted a ceremonial vote in favor of adopting a national security law in Hong Kong that would criminalize those who engage in activities connected to subversion, secession, terrorism, and foreign interference in the Chinese-ruled city.
Additionally, Beijing will set up a national security bureau in Hong Kong that would coordinate with local law enforcement and judiciary to collect intelligence on national security-related cases. The national security law would trump local law in any areas of conflict.
Hong Kong will have jurisdiction over cases—except under ”specific circumstance,” China can have jurisdiction over an “extremely small” number of national security cases, the NPC standing committee said.
Lam, writing on her Facebook page late Saturday evening, welcomed the NPC standing committee in pushing forward the law, and said her government will “fully support related legislation work.” She added that “Hong Kong will not be a bridgehead for exterior forces that jeopardize [China’s] national security.”
While Lam did not name specific countries while speaking of “exterior forces,” Chinese state media have used similar rhetoric to condemn Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests as violence being fomented by western countries.
For example, hawkish state-run media Global Times pushed the propaganda that western governments were “turning Hong Kong into Washington’s bridgehead to jeopardize the rise of China,” in an editorial published in the early hours on Sunday.
It added that the national security law will “fix national security loopholes” in Hong Kong.
“Communist China continues their mission to destroy human rights and autonomy in #HongKong. Its plans to suffocate and intimidate those fighting for their basic rights is clear,” Scott wrote.
“This law fundamentally compromises one-country, two-systems, and breach of the handover agreement. The details emerging put human rights in jeopardy,” Hong Kong Watch added.
The new details about the law also drew widespread concerns among local activists and pro-democracy lawmakers.
A mass protest movement against Beijing’s encroachment erupted in June last year, when millions took to the street in opposition to the now fully-scrapped extradition bill.
The proposed extradition bill sparked outrage as people feared that it would erode Hong Kong’s judicial autonomy from communist China’s legal system, which is not independent of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The bill would have allowed locals and people passing through the city to be extradited to China and trialed in Chinese courts that are notorious for violating rule of law.