Calls to end one-party rule makes you an ‘enemy of Hong Kong’: top Beijing official
The director of Beijing’s representative office in Hong Kong has slammed those who called for an end to the “one-party dictatorship,” as questions continue to be raised about whether the slogan breaches the national security law.
Speaking at an event marking the centenary of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding, Luo Huining said those who chanted the slogan were the “real enemy of Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability” and were attempting to use Hong Kong as a “geopolitical pawn.”
Luo said that there was no one more dedicated to implementing and adhering to the original intention of “one country, two systems” than the Chinese Communist Party, and those who chanted the slogan were damaging the institutional foundation of “one country, two systems.”
“End the one-party dictatorship” is a slogan heard frequently at the annual June 4 vigil, which memorializes the victims of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.
An Apple Daily reporter who checked the transcript of Luo’s speech on the liaison office website found that the slogan had been removed from Luo’s remarks, although he had said it verbatim. In its report, state news agency China News Service also deleted the entire section of Luo’s speech that contained the offending phrase.
Neither Chief Executive Carrie Lam nor National People’s Congress Standing Committee member Tam Yiu-chung has said clearly whether the slogan breaches the national security law. Tam had earlier referred to the slogan as “problematic.”
Speaking after Luo’s remarks, Tam said that since Luo had now clearly pointed out the problem with the slogan, he hoped it would no longer be used.
“Only with the support of the Chinese Communist Party does Hong Kong have ‘one country, two systems’ today,” he said.
Tam said any organization should abide by the national security law, as well as local laws.
Representatives of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, which organizes the annual vigil, said that their platform would not change at this time. Chow Hang-tung from the Alliance said what really damages ‘one country, two systems’ is a government that abuses its power and tramples on human rights.
Richard Tsoi from the Alliance said they had come under various forms of pressure in recent months. This needed to be handled carefully and an assessment needed to be made, he said.
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