LONDON (Reuters) – Beijing unveiled national security legislation tailor-made for Hong Kong on Tuesday, setting the stage for the most radical changes to the former British colony’s way of life since it returned to Chinese rule 23 years ago.
The law is promising to punish the crimes of secession and subversion with up to life in prison and raising concerns of a more authoritarian era for China’s most freewheeling city.
Below are some analysts’ reactions to the details:
IRIS PANG, CHIEF ECONOMIST GREATER CHINA, ING (HONG KONG)
“This is actually not as harsh as I expected, because the law, it has grandfathering over previous actions and it will not have an impact on past actions, which I think is the biggest act the Chinese government could do. I think this is also good for Hong Kong because otherwise there could be further protests if they did not grandfather previous actions.”
“Apart from this, I would say it is just as expected, including the sentencing periods etc. I believe that this law will not have a big impact on the Hong Kong economy.”
“The law is just standard, I don’t believe that many international companies will move away from Hong Kong.”
ILAN SOLOT, FX STRATEGIST, BROWN BROTHERS HARRIMAN (LONDON)
“This doesn’t improve Hong Kong’s status as a financial center, to say the least, coming back from the protests and the virus over the last year. If anything this is a downward slope for Hong Kong’s importance as a global financial hub.”
“Secondly, this drives another wedge between China and the U.S. that will fuel further separation between them. This just reinforces the view that these countries are moving apart from a geopolitical, economical and a technological perspective.”
GABRIEL WILDAU, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, TENEO (NEW YORK)
“On a first read, the law looks to be fairly crippling for political activism in the city. The crimes of “collusion with foreign countries or powers” and “subversion of state power” seemed to be defined quite broadly, which could allow prosecutors to criminalize all kinds of relatively benign, nonviolent activities.”
“The actual impact will depend partly on enforcement and which types of activity the authorities actually decide to prosecute, but the vagueness of the law itself will have a chilling effect, even if the government does not aggressively prosecute from the start. Activists will be aware that the threat of prosecution hangs over them.”
“On the other hand, in terms of Hong Kong’s role as a business and financial center, the law seems designed to minimize any impact. In terms of implementation, the Hong Kong and mainland governments are likely to avoid prosecutions and other enforcement actions that would scare foreign businesses away.”
(Reporting by Karin Strohecker, Saikat Chatterjee and Tom Arnold in London)
