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- Impact of the New Security Law on Hong Kong Citizens Explained | DW News
Impact of the New Security Law on Hong Kong Citizens Explained | DW News
Learn about the controversial new national security law approved in Hong Kong and its implications for citizens. The law gives the government increased powers to suppress dissent, mirroring laws in mainland China, raising concerns among human rights officials and citizens.
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Video Transcript
Now, the United Nations' top human rights official has expressed concern after Hong Kong
lawmakers approved a controversial new national security law.
The legislation is an extension of an existing law that was passed in 2020.
It gives the government greater powers to suppress dissent mirroring laws in mainland China.
It was a demand of China's Communist government in Beijing, which has been increasing its
authority over Hong Kong. Now Phoebe Kong was there for the vote in Hong Kong and I asked her
why this new security legislation was fast tracked. Well the bill was just passed in this chamber
of Hong Kong legislature that we can still hear the cheers of the 89 Pro-Beijing lawmakers and the
officials who are now celebrating the passage of the law. It took only 12 days for to have the
bill, tabled for the final round of scrutiny in this very chamber and get it passed since
it was first released earlier this month. That was the time when the public had the first
chance to really to look into the details of the wording and the penalties of the over
200 pages of legal clauses. So Chief Executive John Lee has just delivered a speech in the
Chamber and Toth Lomikas and the public that the law will come into effect on
23rd of March that is the coming Sunday, the coming Saturday, sorry.
And this is, he described as a historic moment for Hong Kong to finally accomplish
its constitutional duty which has depilated in the city's mini constitution article 23.
But on the other hand, political analysts also say this could be a tactic of
authorities to get it passed so quickly that it catch almost like all of the
pressure groups overseas and many observers off guard that it's harder for
them to liberate to respond in the short period of time. All right, DW
correspondent in Hong Kong, Phoebe Kong, thanks so much Phoebe. We're joined now by
Nathan Law, a former Hong Kong lawmaker and activist now in exile in London.
and thanks so much for joining us. Nathan, can I ask you what it is like for you to see this law
be approved in Hong Kong today? It's definitely death-saving and disheartening, I think a lot of
Hong Kong people share the same feeling, the differences if they are in Hong Kong, they are
unable to express that. If we look through the consultation paper and the contents of the law,
We can put the legal articles aside.
Just look at how they express and how they see the world.
It wholesale adopts the world view of the Chinese Communist Party,
which assess that there are so many external wholesale forces trying to subvert Hong Kong.
And that is completely false.
It has attributed all these uprising and protestors for the past years as a result of these foreign forces
the Serbian Hong Kong, which is also untrue.
If you follow these well-fuel and seeing all these international organisations and foreign
governments as your enemy, how Hong Kong can still be open, liberal and international.
I think this is a bit of a question laying ahead.
It can tell us what this law will mean exactly for Hong Kong citizens.
This law is another patch of national security law after the implementation of the first
round of it in 2020. It really targets foreign nationals in Hong Kong, foreign organizations
operating in Hong Kong, and also Hong Kong organizations overseas. And it also opposes
a lot of threat to journalists and other civil society stakeholders, because for example,
in the article of theft to stay secrets.
It doesn't define clearly what these stay secrets are.
An investigative journalist could fall into this legal trap easily
if they discover anything that the government wants to hide.
So in general, it is another set of laws
that allows the government to crack down the civil society
and it increases the power for the government, for example,
to arbitrarily arrest people, to break into people's home without a warrant,
