'Meeting With Critical Foreigners Not Collusion'

The former president of the Law Society, Stephen Hung, said he doesn’t believe people will be accused of colluding with foreign forces just because they had attended an event with foreigners who criticised the SAR or mainland governments.

Speaking on RTHK's NSL Chronicles II programme on Sunday, Hung said collusion implies some kind of secret dealings between multiple parties.

“If you’re just meeting foreign friends, inviting foreign guests or interviewing foreigners, you wouldn’t call that ‘collusion’”, he said.

Hung added that while freedom is not absolute, local courts do place a heavy emphasis on the freedom of speech.

However, he said while people are free to criticise the administration’s policies, they should steer clear of threatening to undermine government operations.

“For example, if an individual tries to force the government to change its policy by threatening to call on taxis to paralyze traffic across the city, that could be in breach of the national security law,” Hung said.