China threatens US counter measures if punished for Hong Kong law

China on Monday threatened counter measures towards the United States if it was punished for plans to impose a sedition legislation on Hong Kong, that the enterprise hub’s safety chief hailed as a brand new instrument that will defeat “terrorism”.

Beijing plans to move a brand new safety legislation for Hong Kong that bans treason, subversion and sedition after months of large, often-violent pro-democracy protests final yr.

But many Hong Kongers, enterprise teams and western nations concern the proposal may very well be a demise blow to the town’s treasured freedoms and 1000’s took to the streets on Sunday regardless of a ban on mass gatherings launched to fight coronavirus.

As police dispersed the crowds with tear fuel and water cannon, Washington’s nationwide safety advisor Robert O’Brien warned the brand new legislation might value the town its preferential US buying and selling standing.

But China’s overseas ministry stated Beijing would react to any sanctions from Washington.

“If the US insists on hurting China’s interests, China will have to take every necessary measure to counter and oppose this,” overseas ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian advised reporters on Monday.

Hong Kong has turn into the most recent flashpoint in hovering tensions between the world’s two tremendous powers which China has likened to “the brink of a new Cold War”.

The refusal to grant Hong Kongers democracy has sparked uncommon bipartisan help in an in any other case bitterly divided Washington through the Trump administration.

Beijing portrays the town’s protests as a foreign-backed plot to destabilise the motherland and says different nations haven’t any proper to intervene in how the worldwide enterprise hub is run.

– Mainland brokers? –

Protesters, who’ve hit the streets of their thousands and thousands, say they’re motivated by years of Beijing chipping away on the metropolis’s freedoms because it was handed again to China by Britain in 1997.

Hong Kong enjoys liberties unseen on the mainland, in addition to its personal authorized system and commerce standing.

Campaigners view the safety legislation proposal as essentially the most brazen transfer but by Beijing to finish free speech and the town’s capacity to make its personal legal guidelines.

Of explicit concern is a provision permitting Chinese safety brokers to function in Hong Kong, with fears it might spark a crackdown on these voicing dissent towards China’s communist rulers.

On the mainland, subversion legal guidelines are routinely wielded towards critics.

The proposed legislation, which China’s rubber-stamp legislature is anticipated to behave on shortly, can even bypass Hong Kong’s personal legislature.

The metropolis’s influential Bar Association on Monday described the proposed movement as “worrying and problematic” — and warned it might even breach the territory’s mini-constitution.

The proposal has spooked buyers with Hong Kong’s inventory trade struggling its largest drop in 5 years on Friday. On Monday it had but to recuperate, closing simply 0.10 p.c up.

– ‘Restore social order’ –

Hong Kong’s unpopular pro-Beijing authorities has welcomed the legislation.

“Terrorism is growing in the city and activities which harm national security, such as ‘Hong Kong independence’, become more rampant,” safety minister John Lee stated in a press release welcoming the deliberate laws.

Police chief Chris Tang cited 14 latest circumstances the place explosives had been seized and stated the brand new legislation would “help combat the force of ‘Hong Kong independence’ and restore social order”.

Last yr’s protests had been initially sparked by plans to permit extraditions to the mainland however quickly snowballed into a preferred revolt towards Beijing and the town’s police drive.

Beijing has dismissed protester calls for for an inquiry into the police, amnesty for the 8,500 individuals arrested and common suffrage.

The demonstrations fizzled firstly of the yr as mass arrests and the coronavirus took their toll.

But they’ve rekindled in latest weeks with Sunday’s rally producing essentially the most intense clashes for months and police making not less than 120 arrests.

During final yr’s big pro-democracy rallies, mob assaults had been frequent on each side of the political divide and a video of protesters beating a lawyer at Sunday’s rally was seized on by China’s state media.

Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the nationalist tabloid Global Times, posted the video on Twitter — a platform banned in mainland China.

“Let’s see what the Washington-backed Hong Kong democracy really looks like,” he wrote.

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