In Hong Kong, many expect some offences will attract life sentences
HONG KONGERS still do not know exactly what the new national-security law China is imposing on the territory contains. In May China announced it would enact a bill for Hong Kong covering crimes such as subversion and secession, without referring to the city’s legislature. Passed by China’s rubber-stamp parliament in Beijing on June 30th, and promulgated by an order from China’s president, Xi Jinping, its text was not immediately made public, though an outline was released ten days earlier.
Internationally, the law has drawn condemnation from Britain, the former colonial power, and many Western countries, who regard it as a breach of China’s promise to honour Hong Kong’s autonomy under “one country, two systems”. The American government has warned that in response it will remove Hong Kong’s special trading status and treat it as indistinguishable from the rest of China.
The point of the new law is clearly to deter the kind of unrest that has roiled Hong Kong since then. Hong Kong has been plastered with billboards hailing the legislation, though even senior officials in the city have yet to see it. The official description stresses that the bill will comply with “important principles of the rule of law” and international human-rights legislation. But it will take precedence should a conflict arise between the new law and existing ones.
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