Hong Kong Should Enact 'Strong Laws' to Preserve National Security: Beijing Official

Hong Kong should enact, amend and activate laws and law enforcement mechanism related to national security as soon as possible, else it might become a potential risk to national security, Luo Huining, the central government's top official in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has said.

Delivering a speech in a video address as the city held a series of online activities to mark the fifth National Security Education Day, Huining said Hong Kong must not become a weak link in national security and that "this weak link would be fatal to the nation's security at a critical moment."

There remains room for improvement in the mechanism for maintaining national security in Hong Kong, and this has resulted in a relatively low awareness of the importance of national security among its people since Hong Kong's return to the motherland 23 years ago, he said.

There should be zero tolerance of actions that jeopardize rule of law in the city, he said indicating tougher action than what has been seen in police action against Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters.

Last June, radicalism and street violence began to take hold in the city, undermining the rule of law. He said that advocacy of separatism during the prolonged unrest destabilized Hong Kong, challenged the "one country, two systems" principle and threatened national security.

Editorial comment: Hong Kongers are protesting against a law that provides for fugitives to be extracted to the mainland for trial after several liberal thinkers, criminals and even book publishers disappeared only to surface in mainland jails, often unacknowledged by Beijing. The law was subsequently overturned.

Hong Kong protesters have found support in the renegade province of Taiwan that has declared independence from China.