National security law: Hong Kong literary scene fears curbs on what can be written, published and sold in the city after legislation takes effect
- Full details of new law not out yet, but worries surface over restrictions on freedom, creativity
- Despondent over possible effects, writer Tang Siu-wa says: ‘It’s OK for me to sell fish balls’
They worry there will be restrictions on what can be written, published and sold, and that a “reporting culture” will take root, with pro-Beijing patriots denouncing anything they consider politically incorrect.
“When the authorities have power, they will use it sooner or later,” prominent writer Tang Siu-wa said. “Coupled with ‘the reporting culture’, I feel my creative freedom and personal safety are at risk.”
China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the mainland’s top legislative body, on Thursday began a three-day meeting at which a draft of the tailor-made national security law for Hong Kong was tabled.
The law, which could be passed as early as this month, will outlaw acts of secession, subversion, terrorism as well as “collusion with foreign and external forces to endanger national security”.
On Saturday, state news agency Xinhua outlined more details of the law, saying it would ensure the city’s government upheld its commitments to human rights even as it safeguarded national security.
“It must protect the freedoms of expression, the press, publication, association, assembly … that Hong Kong people enjoy under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,” it said.
