Hong Kong Basic Law

Hong Kong police are setting up a dedicated unit to enforce the coming national security law, one that will be ready to function on the “very first day” the controversial legislation comes into effect, the city’s security minister told the South China Morning Post. John Lee, the minister, said the new unit, would be commanded by Hong Kong’s police commissioner Chris Tang. It would have intelligence-gathering, investigation and training capabilities, Lee said. But he declined to elaborate on how police would work with the new agency the mainland’s national security authorities are expected to set up in Hong Kong after the law is in place. The revelation came a week after the security minister

Britain has said it will offer greater citizenship rights to some Hongkongers if China proceeds with its plan to impose a national security law on the city, marking a dramatic shift to London’s long-held policy. The change concerns holders of British National (Overseas) passports, which were offered to Hongkongers born before the former British colony’s 1997 handover to China. Under current rules, the 300,000 people with those so-called BN(O) passport holders can visit the UK for up to six months but cannot work or apply for citizenship. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Thursday that Britain was ready to change this rule, prompting China to accuse Britain of going back on a pro

US President Donald Trump has to decide what actions to take after the US state department told Congress on Wednesday that Hong Kong was no longer considered autonomous from China, an assessment that could threaten the city’s long-standing special trading status. “It’s a one-two action,” said David Stilwell, assistant secretary of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the state department, on Wednesday evening. “One being the state department making the assessment that Hong Kong no longer enjoys autonomy,” he told reporters, referring to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s statement earlier in the day. “And then, [the second action will be] the determination by the White House as to h

President Donald Trump said his administration would “do something” within days about the situation in Hong Kong after the Chinese government decided to impose controversial national security legislation on the city. Critics said the proposed law threatened the civil liberties in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 as a highly autonomous special administrative region. On Wednesday, Hong Kong was embroiled in city-wide protests as the local legislature debated a bill that would criminalize booing the Chinese national anthem.  When asked if he was prepared to use sanctions against China over the national security legislation, Trump said: “We’re doing something now

Hong Kong will come under the spotlight at China’s biggest political event of the year following waves of protest last year. Sources told the South China Morning Post that Premier Li Keqiang was expected to take a tougher stance on Hong Kong when he delivers his work report to the National People’s Congress (NPC). The NPC, usually held in early March, was delayed until this month because of the pandemic. It is where Beijing announces its annual economic growth targets, sets budgets and lays out key development plans. Ordinarily, the premier's report contains a terse, one-paragraph mention of Hong Kong and Macau that reaffirms the “one country, two systems” principle that grants the former c

In the early years following the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, Beijing chose to respect the city’s semi-autonomous legal system and its mini-constitution, the Basic Law. But in recent years China’s central government has increasingly emphasized its “comprehensive governing power” over Hong Kong.   So my biggest worry about co-location is that Beijing’s hidden agenda is to use the arrangement to establish absolute control over Hong Kong. Hong Kong is part of China but has its own legal system. But under co-location, mainland Chinese officials will enforce mainland Chinese laws within a designated area of Hong Kong’s West Kowloon terminus, known as “the Mainland Port Area.”