Six hundred thousand Hong Kong people defied warnings to vote in an unofficial primary election for pro-democracy parties on Sunday. Now China warns that all of them may have violated the new national security law.
250 polling stations were voted to choose the best candidates to challenge pro-China parties in the city’s Legislative Council election, which will begin on September 6.
Activists consider winning a majority in the legislature the best way to combat growing Chinese interference after Beijing imposed a new law on Hong Kong on June 30, giving them broad powers to identify and suppress protests and dissent. at will.
But the Chinese government’s liaison office in Hong Kong said in a statement Monday that the vote was “totally illegal behavior.”
Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive, also said at a press conference on Monday that primaries “may fall into the category of subverting state power, which is now one of four types of crime under the new national security law. ” “
Pro-democracy activists (left to right) Gwyneth Ho, Leung Hoi-ching, Tiffany Yuen, and Joshua Wong in Hong Kong on July 12, 2020.
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The liaison office statement also accused Benny Tai Yiu-ting, a legal expert who organized the primaries, of working with foreign governments to undermine China’s efforts to control Hong Kong.
“The objective of the Benny Tai gang and the opposition is to take over the government in Hong Kong and deliberately organize Hong Kong’s version of the ‘color revolution’,” the statement said.
“He was openly manipulating the elections. Whose instructions did he receive? Who gave him so much confidence?”
Chief Executive Lam also said that if the intention of the primaries was to help democratic parties win a 35-seat majority in the 70-seat legislature, then that “could fall into the category of subverting state power.”
People seen fleeing tear gas fired by police during protests against the National Security Bill in May 2020.
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National security law has made it immensely difficult to counter China’s growing influence in Hong Kong.
The law is vague, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for the accused. As a result, several high-profile Hong Kong activists fled the city, some of whom are now working in a parliament in exile.
Organizers of the primaries said they initially expected 170,000 people to attend. But after the number reached 600,000, Sunny Cheung, a primary candidate, told Reuters that “it will send a very strong signal to the international community, that the Hong Kong people will never surrender.”
The national security law was passed despite weeks of protests in the city and objections from countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.
Following this, Britain, which ruled over Hong Kong for about 150 years until 1997, offered 3 million Hong Kong people and their families a path to citizenship.
