4 years ago
International Pressure on China regarding Hong Kong Law
China faced growing international pressure Friday over its move to impose a security law on Hong Kong that critics say will destroy the city's autonomy, with the United States and Britain placing the issue before the UN Security Council.
The US, Britain, Canada and Australia led criticism of the planned law, which would punish secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and acts that endanger national security, as well as allow Chinese security agencies to operate openly in Hong Kong.
China's rubber-stamp parliament on Thursday approved the plans for the law, which followed seven months of huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in HongKong last year.
After China fended off initial American efforts this week to have the controversy put on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, the US and Britain succeeded in securing an informal discussion about it for Friday, diplomatic sources told AFP.
Beijing's proposed security law "lies in direct conflict" with China's international obligations to guarantee certain freedoms in Hong Kong, the two countries said in a joint statement with Canada and Australia on Thursday.
"The proposed law would undermine the One Country, Two Systems framework," they added, referring to Hong Kong's special status within China under the terms of its handover from Britain in 1997.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also said the UK would widen its rules around the rights of British National (Overseas) passport holders a status offered to many Hongkongers at the time of handover -- if China went ahead with the new law.
