Hong Kong: fears after the entry into force of the new national security law
This Saturday, March 23, a new national security law comes into force in Hong Kong. It covers new political crimes which were not included in the previous draconian law, imposed by China in 2020. While local authorities congratulated themselves on this “
historic moment
” of “
collective pride
”, the immediate effect noted in Hong Kong was to muzzle Hong Kong citizens even more than before.
Passage of the bill on safeguarding national security, in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, March 19, 2024. © Reuters/Joyce Zhou
By: RFI Follow
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From our correspondent in Hong Kong,
Florence de Changy
Since
the virulent security tightening in Hong Kong
four years ago, it has been very difficult to meet Hong Kongers willing to comment on the political situation.
One of them, a nurse in his thirties, agreed to speak on RFI's microphone on the sole condition that his voice be altered, affirming that the police had the technology to find a person on a single excerpt of voice: “
The main message they want to send is to silence everyone. What we think of this law is that it's like shooting a corpse, we're already dead and we're being shot again.
»
“
We don’t know who will be the first targeted
”
For this accountant who hopes to leave
Hong Kong
soon, it is wrong to imagine that we had already reached the worst, because this law goes even further: "
My fear, knowing that when the national security law entered in force in July 2020, they made arrests in the hours that followed, and this time, I don't know who will be the first targeted.
»
The first targeted could well be the 2019 demonstrators who chose to go into exile to avoid legal proceedings, or rather their family members who remained in Hong Kong, because the new law plans in particular to punish any person who directly supports or indirectly, a fugitive.
Also read: Hong Kong: a new security law in perspective to “fill gaps”
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