Hong Kong’s parliament has unanimously passed a new security law which grants the government more power to quash dissent.
The new legislation threatens sentences of up to life in prison for offenses including treason and insurrection, as well as stringent penalties for other offenses such as sabotage, external interference and theft of state secrets.
Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, which is packed with Beijing loyalists, says the new law aims to protect national security.
However, the move is widely seen as the latest step in a sweeping political crackdown following large-scale 2019 street protests that challenged China’s rule over the semi-autonomous territory.
Critics fear the new legislation – an expansion on the controversial imposition of the 2019 Beijing’s National Security Law – will further eradicate civil liberties that Xi Jinping’s government promised to preserve for 50 years when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Amnesty International described the passing of the new legislation – named Article 23 – as a “crushing blow to human rights in the city”.
“The passing of Article 23 sends the clearest message yet that the Hong Kong authorities’ hunger to accommodate Beijing’s will strips any past commitments on human rights,” the group
