Hong Kong can borrow from foreign security laws including Australia to combat foreign interference.

China

Hong Kong can borrow from foreign security laws including Australia to combat foreign interference.

Aug 8, 2021

The US government had invested lots of resources in building up an espionage base in Hong Kong, and made tremendous efforts to recruit their anti-China agents here and provided them with training and resources, hoping that they could successfully mount the 2019 riots to seize control over Hong Kong to hurt the central government in Beijing.

They were almost successful in bringing the city to its knees, but Beijing saved the day with the introduction of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, and together with its effective implementation by the disciplined Hong Kong Police Force, the subversive American network was rendered impotent with the mass arrests of many implicated violent protesters, opposition politicians and activists.

Many US consulate staff members quickly deserted Hong Kong, and their quarters were sold. Hong Kong soon returned to order and stability. The US sanctions were indeed truly a manifestation of their “humiliation turning to rage to cover their shame”. But they only succeeded in exposing the true anti-democratic colours of the US government and in unifying the Chinese people against foreign interference….

Australia has at least 13 major national security laws, covering treason, treachery, sabotage, piracy, espionage, terrorism, terrorist financing, hostage-taking, interference with ships or aviation, foreign interference in domestic politics in Australia, and foreign incursions into Australia. The proposed local NSL should cover all these areas, and not be limited to treason, sedition and theft of state secrets as constituting Article 23.

Under the Australian foreign interference act, passed in 2018, it is illegal for a person to knowingly engage in covert conduct or deception on behalf of a foreign principal with the intention of influencing an Australian political process, exercise of a vote, or prejudicing national security. The maximum penalty is 20 years’ imprisonment. Such a provision is most appropriate to combat US interference in Hong Kong….

I wonder if anyone knows that the National Endowment for Democracy, known to be an arm of the US Central Intelligence Agency and banned in Hong Kong in 2019 because of its despicable role in supporting the riots, is offering US$150,000 for reports on human rights violations in Cuba, at a time when Cuba is wracked by public protests. And the US Senate recently set aside US$300 million to encourage journalists around the world to produce “negative articles related to China’s Belt and Road Initiative”, clearly an incentive for unscrupulous journalists to fabricate negative reports about what is essentially an international development program to expedite development with local partners….

As a matter of fact, we may already be suffering under such devious American subversive interference with the help of local proxies. Given the fake news and distorted commentaries that flooded the local media at the height of the insurrection in 2019, I would not be surprised if some of our local academics and media commentators have been receiving secret funding from the West to perform just such dirty work and being rewarded for it. It should now be made a criminal offence for a reporter or academic to receive foreign funding to demonize China, including Hong Kong.

This is an excerpt from an article written by Tony Kwok. The author is an adjunct professor of HKU Space, a council member of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, and a former deputy commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Click here for the full article.