HONG KONG -- Hong Kong's chief executive on Friday said she has been given a list of steps to "deepen" implementation of Beijing's national security law, including instructions to take a firmer hand with schools, the media and online activity.
Carrie Lam briefed reporters after a closed-door meeting during which she said Xia Baolong, the head of the Chinese State Council's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, delivered directives from Beijing via videoconference.
No media except for Chinese state outlets were allowed to enter the venue at the five-star Conrad Hotel, which was under tight security. The meeting was so closely guarded that the local government press office told Nikkei Asia on Thursday that they had no details of it and did not organize it, even though Lam and other high-ranking officials were due to attend.
Afterward, Lam recounted the five demands Xia made to the Hong Kong government, related to the national security law Beijing imposed in June 2020.
First, she said he asked authorities in the territory to bolster related laws and regulations, including legislating the territory's own national security law based on Article 23 of the Basic Law. The article states that Hong Kong "shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government," with a broader scope than even Beijing's law.
Past attempts to do this have all failed, most notably bringing 500,000 protesters onto the streets in 2003. Lam mentioned a highly controversial anti-doxxing bill, the government proposal for which was published in a gazette on Friday, as an example of such efforts on her part.
Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, attends the opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing in March. © Reuters Xia's second instruction, according to Lam, was to "properly handle" cases involving national security law violations. Already 117 alleged offenders have been arrested, with 64 of them charged so far. But Xia seems to expect more investigations and indictments.
Xia was apparently very specific on his third point. He cited Article 9 of the national security law to strengthen guidance, supervision and regulation over schools, universities, social organizations, media and the internet. Hong Kong's most outspoken pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, was already pressured out of circulation last month. But Beijing wants greater enforcement so as "not to let them cause any risks of endangering national security."
Lam explained that Xia was also keen on pushing forward with Article 10 of the national security law, which calls for using various social organizations, the media and the internet to promote national security education in schools and universities -- and raise awareness of the law in general.
Already, the territory's authorities have stepped up pressure on educational institutions: The police raided the Student Union office of the University of Hong Kong on Friday afternoon, following Xia's speech. The union is one of the city's most vocal advocates for the protection of freedoms and the promotion of democracy.
The fifth point was to "properly" conduct three upcoming elections: the Election Committee selection in September, to choose those eligible to pick the chief executive; the Legislative Council election in December; and the chief executive poll in March.
Lam said that Xia placed a special emphasis on making sure strict mechanisms are in place to screen out any candidates who are not "patriots" in the eyes of Beijing.
A few hours after Lam's briefing, the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office issued a news release about Xia's speech. While it did not detail the five demands, it stressed that the territory's government and the administrative team have a responsibility to "firmly lift up and comprehensively implement the national security law."
The statement said the police are entrusted to "sternly execute" the law, and that Xia called the force "the pride" of not only the city but the nation as a whole. According to the release, he said the police department "has proved worthy of the beautiful honor of being the best security force in the whole world."
This endorsement confirms the trust in the security apparatus Beijing demonstrated in the latest shuffling of top personnel in late June. Security Secretary John Lee was promoted to be the chief secretary, the second-highest position only after Lam. Lee is the highest-ranking ex-police officer in Hong Kong's history and many believe he is a leading candidate to be the next chief executive.
The office's statement also highlighted Xia's insistence that "patriots" must govern Hong Kong -- that Beijing is "absolutely not going to allow anyone" who is against China or would disrupt the city to enter the governing architecture.
"This is the bottom line, like a bar of iron," Xia is quoted as saying -- a statement that applies to Macao as well. This may explain the sudden announcement by the Macanese authorities last Friday, disqualifying all pro-democracy candidates from the upcoming legislative election in September.
The electoral system in the former Portuguese colony already makes it virtually impossible for the pro-democracy camp to win any sort of control over the legislature, and its Basic Law -- unlike Hong Kong's -- does not call universal suffrage to elect the top leader and lawmakers the "ultimate aim."
Still, the incident was the latest sign that Beijing's tolerance of any opposition is nearing zero in territories supposedly governed under the "one country, two systems" arrangement.
Accounts of Xia's speech also reveal how much Beijing is wary of international pressure.
The reasoning behind imposing the national security law was to "thoroughly crush the conspiracy of the Hong Kong version of the color revolution," he was quoted as saying, referring to democratic movements that swept across parts of North Africa, the Middle East and former Soviet republics to overthrow authoritarian regimes in the early 2000s.
Xia also made direct references to President Xi Jinping's speech on July 1 commemorating the Communist Party's centennial. Xia referenced some of the most fiery lines, where the top leader warned that any foreign adversaries that get in China's way will "find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people, and their heads cracked and blood spilling over."
Xia accused the U.S. government and the European Parliament of "brutally trampling international law and interfering in our internal affairs," while naming those who are against China and those who disrupt Hong Kong to be "agents" of such foreign forces.