Maria Tam Dismisses Fears, Lawmakers Hail Move

Vice-chairwoman of the Basic Law Committee, Maria Tam, on Friday said people have nothing to fear over the new security laws Beijing is imposing on Hong Kong unless they are trying to undermine national security, while pro-government lawmakers brushed off a market plunge after the central government announced its move.

Tam, speaking to RTHK from the capital, dismissed concerns raised by legal experts and opposition politicians that Beijing's intervention signals the end of "One Country, Two Systems".

“If you can not protect one country, you can not have two systems. The integrity of both one country and two systems need to be safeguarded,” said Tam. “The resolution today is to ensure the first part is done in order to secure the second part.”

She also dismissed fears that the freedoms and restrictions supposedly guaranteed in Hong Kong will now be eroded.

“The law, if enacted, it will be sort of executed or implemented in Hong Kong and the trials will be taking place in Hong Kong – that is my guess,” she said.

“As far as I am concerned unless if you are interested in somehow upsetting the national security of Hong Kong and China, you have nothing to fear,” she said with a laugh.

But she told RTHK’s Priscilla Ng that some areas of the new law remains ambiguous as it is still just a draft.

Meanwhile lawmakers in the pro-Beijing camp welcomed the move, saying the central government had to plug a "legal loophole" for the benefit of social stability.

The camp's convenor, Martin Liao, said the stock market plunge on Friday “pales into insignificance" when compared to the national security of China and the safety of its people.

The Hong Kong stock market shed 5 percent after Beijing announced the move. But Liao said he believes Beijing had already factored in the proposal's impact.

The lawmaker said that recently there has been rising advocacy of Hong Kong independence, localism, and "they collude with separatist groups in Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang and anti-China foreign forces”.

He went on a tirade saying that the opposition had damaged the legislature, stormed Beijing's liaison office, and advocated "armed uprising and drafting its own constitution".

Liao said there are many examples of a "colour revolution" in Hong Kong since last June, with the "black-clad violence and intended terrorism" endangering national security.

The Business and Professionals Alliance's chair, Lo Wai-kwok, said Beijing's aim is to protect people, rather than putting pressure on them.

"Who would want to see secession, subversion, terrorism and introduction of external forces to intervene [in local affairs]?" he asked.

Beijing's Basic Law Committee member Priscilla Leung said she had long stressed that Hong Kong should have cherished the constitutional responsibility to legislate Article 23 laws on its own.

But Leung refused to comment on how Beijing could set up national security bases in Hong Kong, saying she needed to know more details about this.