The U.S., Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom on Thursday slammed the latest move by China to approve a strict national security law on Hong Kong, which critics say will infringe on the territory’s autonomy.
China’s parliament hours earlier approved the controversial law on Hong Kong that Beijing says will allow Chinese intelligence and security forces to be based inside the district for the first time, and seeks to address terrorism, secession, and foreign interference in the city.
But the band of western democracies has forcefully come out against the move and said in a joint statement that the law will “dramatically erode Hong Kong’s autonomy and the system that made it so prosperous.”
“Direct imposition of national security legislation on Hong Kong by the Beijing authorities, rather than through Hong Kong’s own institutions as provided for under Article 23 of the Basic Law, would curtail the Hong Kong people’s liberties,” the nations said.
Pro-Beijing lawmakers said the law will not impact the autonomy granted to Hong Kong under a 1997 treaty between Britain and China that bound Beijing’s communist rulers to respect Hong Kong’s autonomy as a special administrative region and to leave its liberal economy and government for 50 years under the formulation “one country, two systems.”
The U.S., Australia, Canada, and U.K. said the law would “undermine” the agreement and “raises the prospect of prosecution in Hong Kong for political crimes, and undermines existing commitments to protect the rights of Hong Kong people.”
China’s approval of the legislation came one day after the Trump administration declared that China has effectively stripped Hong Kong of its promised democratic freedoms and the city no longer deserves a raft of U.S. trade and investment privileges, fueling rising U.S.-Chinese tensions and throwing into question the island territory’s status as a global financial powerhouse.
The proposal of the law sparked widespread protests in the city this week as thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets, and hundreds have since been arrested.
The nations called on China to “find a mutually acceptable accommodation that will honor China’s international obligations under the UN-filed Sino-British Joint Declaration.”
It remains unclear when the law will be enforced, but it is expected to be enacted at a future gathering of the ceremonial legislature by September.
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