China has opened an office to “safeguard national security” in Hong Kong, turning a hotel near a hotspot for pro-democracy protests and the annual vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown into its new headquarters.
Carrie Lam, the chief executive of Hong Kong, called the inauguration on Wednesday of the Office of Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region an “historic moment” for the semi-autonomous city.
Speaking at a ceremony at the former Metropark Hotel, Lam said Hong Kong residents “are witnessing another milestone in the establishment of a sound legal system and enforcement mechanism for maintaining national security in Hong Kong”.
The office, in the bustling shopping and commercial district of Causeway Bay, near Victoria Park, will allow Chinese intelligence agents to operate openly in Hong Kong for the first time since the 1997 handover and oversee the enactment of the sweeping national security legislation that was imposed on the city last week.
The law – which bans what China calls secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces – empowers the office to take enforcement action in the most serious cases. It also allows agents to take suspects across the border for trials in Communist Party-controlled courts and specifies special privileges for Chinese agents, including that Hong Kong authorities cannot inspect their vehicles.
Source: aljazeera.com
The post ‘Historic moment’: China opens security office in Hong Kong appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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