Hong Kong judges and civil servants must defend China’s national security, senior Beijing official tells legal forum

Beijing’s national security chief in Hong Kong has said all public officials, including judicial and law enforcement officers, are obliged to protect China’s national security, and doing so was not at odds with a civil servant’s political neutrality, or judicial independence.

Zheng Yanxiong, director of the central government’s Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, was speaking at a legal forum on national security on Monday, as other senior officials in the city also warned against any attempt to endanger national security.

In his keynote speech, Zheng said Beijing had to enact the legislation last year because they believed the US and other Western powers were trying to use Hong Kong as a pawn in curbing China’s growth.

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“The 2019 social unrest has seriously threatened national security,” he said. “Those were not calls for democracy or self ruling, but a blatant act of subversion. When ‘black violence’ and other extreme acts led to inhuman, and anti-societal crimes … We have no choice but to hit back with the law.”

Chief Executive Carrie Lam addresses the forum on Monday. Photo: Handout

Zheng said the enactment of the law had helped Hong Kong to restore social stability in the past year.

“If any individual or any force still wanted to test the central government’s determination and bottom line [in protecting] Hong Kong, they would only bring humiliation upon themselves,” he said.

While Beijing plays a fundamental role in safeguarding national security, Zheng said Hong Kong also had a constitutional obligation to work with the central government on this front.

“Safeguarding national security is the responsibility of every administrative, judicial, and law-enforcement officer,” he said. “This has nothing to do with political neutrality. It does not contradict the [independence of the] judicial system, and is completely in line with public interest. Everyone has no excuse for not doing their job, or doing it wantonly.”

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Separately, Chen Dong, the deputy director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, cited an attack on a police officer in Causeway Bay as evidence that “anti-China forces in Hong Kong have not been completely eliminated”.

Last Thursday, a 50-year-old man stabbed a police officer, as Hong Kong celebrated the 24th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule. He then used the weapon on himself, and was pronounced dead at the hospital. The officer was seriously injured, and remained in stable condition after emergency surgery.

“Some people with ulterior motives blatantly supported and beautified violent acts. Some groups and individuals, under the cloak of their legal profession, engaged in activities to disrupt Hong Kong.” Chen said, without naming those he accused.

The pair were speaking at a forum, “security brings prosperity”, which was organised by the Department of Justice to mark the first anniversary of the law, which Beijing impose on Hong Kong last June to prohibit acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.

Earlier, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the security law had stabilised the city, improved the business environment, and preserved press freedom.

Lam also stressed the importance of educating the city’s youth about the law, and reiterated that it had only targeted a “small minority”.

Accusations that the law had infringed on people’s rights – including freedom of speech – following the arrest of dozens of opposition activists were groundless, Lam told attendees.

She also took implicit aim at the groundswell of criticism from abroad that followed the recent closure of the Apple Daily newspaper after its top executives were arrested – accused of colluding with foreign forces – and HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) in assets were frozen under the law.

“Hong Kong has continued to enjoy press freedom,” she said. “The number of media outlets registered at the government’s information service system has increased, and journalists continue to monitor the government.

“There are about 9,000 local and foreign companies in Hong Kong … After the government explained the law to them, their worries about the security law diminished.”

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