Ronny Tong

Opinion | Truth of Hong Kong’s national security law will prevail over fog of Western criticism

Much of the criticism is not based on a careful reading of the law, and does not give credit to the professionalism of the Hong Kong law enforcement and judicial authorities who will be the ones to enforce the law and adjudicate on it

The ‘one country, two systems’ framework will not collapse simply on the Western world’s say-so

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Ronny Tong

Published: 9:00am, 9 Jul 2020Updated: 9:00am, 9 Jul 2020

An American law professor recently wrote an article about the Hong Kong national security law where he examined almost every article, and concluded in these words: “I wasn’t going to pay much attention to the substantive crimes and their definition … It’s the institutions and the processes that count … This whole law is about avoiding the involvement of such institutions.”

One article he did not refer to is Article 8, which provides that “the law enforcement and judicial authorities of the Hong Kong special administrative region shall fully enforce this law and the laws in force in the region concerning the prevention of, suppression of, and imposition of punishment for acts and activities endangering national security”.

In fact, the law is being enforced by the law enforcement and judicial authorities of the Hong Kong SAR. So what institutions are the professor saying had been “avoided” by the law? Or is he saying all Hong Kong institutions are bogus?

I mention this article because it is indicative of the attitude in general of Western governments and media in relation to the national security law: words in the law do not matter; constitutional and institutional safeguards for human rights do not matter; that many countries around the world have a national security law do not matter; what matters is it is China doing it.

02:13

Beijing’s passage of national security law for Hong Kong draws international criticism

Since it is China, all safeguards and references to the rule of law must be a lie. And in this regard, no distinction is to be drawn between mainland courts and Hong Kong courts.