Hundreds of protesters broke coronavirus lockdown restrictions to publicly condemn the new security proposals
Hong Kong Leader Carrie Lam Addresses Proposed National Security Laws
By Patryk Krych | The World Daily | MAY 26th 2020
On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam had spoken out about the recently proposed national security laws that have yet to be voted in, following a flare of major protests that have sparked up in outrage, demanding the proposed law be waved.
On Sunday, thousands of protestors had gathered and been fired upon by police using water cannons and tear gas. They gathered to protest the implementation of a new security law that they feared would serve to disrupt the unique freedoms they have, akin to the rights that are commonplace in the Western world. Almost 200 arrests were made that day.
During her announcement, Lam sought to reassure the public that the newly proposed national security laws would in no way interfere with their freedoms – freedoms that aren’t had in the rest of mainland China, one of which includes the right to protest, as well as criticise the government. Actions that are considered criminal in the country’s mainland. These reassurances come along with a tide of many other statements from both local, and Beijing officials.
“In the last 23 years, whenever people worried about Hong Kong’s freedom of speech and freedom of expression and protest, time and again, Hong Kong has proven that we uphold and preserve those values,” Lam stated, to a regular weekly news conference. “There is no need for us to worry.”
Like all others who’d spoken to the Hong Kong public about the details of the legislation, stating it wouldn’t interrupt their freedoms, she refused to get into any specifics or even address how exactly the Hong Kong public’s freedoms would be protected.
“The best thing is to see the legislation in front of us and to understand why at this point in time Hong Kong needs this piece of legislation,” she added.
Lam had also urged the public to wait, and see the details of the legislation for themselves when it becomes more publicly accessible. According to a draft proposal that’d been put forth towards China’s rubber stamp parliament last week, the legislation’s primary purpose and aims would be to focus on targeting and tackling secession, as well as subversion and terrorist activities. Were it to go through, authorities from China’s mainland would be set to work alongside Hong Kong authorities, bringing many of the protestors to worrisome conclusions that Chinese mainland law-making would interfere with the city’s present judiciary system – very reminiscent to that of the West.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam arrives to deliver her annual policy address in October 2019
More protests are expected to occur on Wednesday, Lam’s announcement and pleas notwithstanding, both over the proposed draft of the security law, as well as a bill, due for a second reading in the city’s legislature that would criminalise the ‘abuse’ of the Chinese national anthem.
These are the first major protests to hit the city since last year’s pro-democratic demonstrations that had been instigated over the announcement of a plan to introduce an extradition into Hong Kong, law with China. A plan which had not gone down successfully, willed away by the increasingly violent and chaotic protests. The many demonstrations being had within the former British colony had ended up sinking it into its largest and loudest crisis since it’d made a return to Chinese rule back in 1997.
By Patryk Krych | © The World Daily 2020
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