(Beijing) A tough guy to frame Hong Kong. Despite mounting international pressure, Beijing on Friday appointed a senior official to take care of national security in the former British colony, under controversial law.
Posted on July 3 2020 at 19 h 18
Sébastien RICCI
France Media Agency
The newly created “National Security Bureau”, which reports directly to the central government, has the task of collecting intelligence and prosecuting attacks on state security in Hong Kong.
This is one of the provisions of the controversial law that Beijing forcefully passed on Tuesday.
Zheng Yanxiong, 56 years old, is head of this organization, state media announced on Friday.
“He's a tough guy, a man of law and order,” political scientist Willy Lam, a Chinese specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, told AFP.
The man made a career in Guangdong, the province which borders Hong Kong. Mr. Zheng is best known for quelling Wukan's challenge in 2011.
The village had become famous when its inhabitants rose up to drive out the local Chinese Communist Party (CCP) caciques whom they accused of enriching themselves at their expense by seizing their land.
Household on the internet
The communist regime imposed on the ex-British colony on Tuesday a very controversial text in that it violates, according to its detractors, the principle “One country-two systems” supposed to guarantee Hong Kong freedoms unknown elsewhere in China.
Until the last moment, Beijing has kept secret the content of this law aimed at suppressing subversion, secession, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, in response to the protest movement launched last year against central power.
Many jurists have warned against the very vague wording of a text which, by being open to all interpretations, encourages self-censorship.
The new law is blowing panic among some Hong Kongers, who since Tuesday have erased all traces of their pro-democracy commitment on social networks.
“I changed my profile name and adopted a private account so that my employer could not see my publications which he could deem anti-Chinese or in violation of the law on national security”, explains under Covered with anonymity to AFP an employee of a large company, whose management is according to him “Pro-Beijing”.
Managers and banks in the viewfinder
In Hong Kong, the authorities seem to want to drive the point home.
For the first time since the law was promulgated, a man in his twenties was indicted on Friday for “inciting secession” and “terrorism”.
And fearing for his safety, Nathan Law, one of the most prominent young activists in the protest last year, announced Thursday that he had fled abroad.
“Given the risks, I will not reveal too much about where I am and my personal situation,” he said in a short message.
Canada announced Friday that it is suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong and its exports of “sensitive” military equipment.
“Canada firmly believes in the principle of one country, two systems” which is supposed to guarantee Hong Kong unknown freedoms elsewhere in China, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a press briefing. “We are very concerned about the situation in Hong Kong,” he added.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has also expressed concern. “We are alarmed by the fact that arrests are already being made under the law, when there is no complete information on the scope and definition of the crimes” covered by this law, said the door – word of the OHCHR, Rupert Colville.
Twenty-seven countries of the UN Human Rights Council, including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Japan, have condemned the new law.
In Washington, Congress passed a law on Thursday that plans to punish Chinese officials applying the new rules and target the banks that finance them.
