China appointed a hardliner to head a new national security agency in Hong Kong

-

HONG KONG: China appointed a hardliner to head a new national security agency in Hong Kong on Friday as police brought the first charges under a sweeping new anti-subversion law that has shaken the semi-autonomous finance hub.

China appoints hardliner to head new Hong Kong security agency

Zheng Yanxiong -a party official best known for tackling protests on the mainland — will lead the office set up by the legislation that empowers mainland security agents to operate in Hong Kong openly for the first time, unbound by the city’s laws.

The appointment came as a man accused of deliberately driving his motorbike into a group of police officers became the first police officer in Hong Kong to be charged under the new national security law.

China’s authoritarian leaders say the suite of powers will restore stability after a year of protests and will not stifle freedoms.

But police have already begun arresting people for possessing flags and banners while the local government has made clear certain political views, especially calls for independence, are now outlawed.

On Thursday evening Nathan Law, one of the city’s most prominent young activists, announced he had fled overseas to an undisclosed location, fearing arrest days after the pro-democracy party he helped found said it was disbanding.

Many western governments — led by Britain and the United States — have condemned the law and have angered Beijing by threatening to hit back with sanctions or offer sanctuary to Hong Kongers.

The new national security agency is just one new element of Beijing’s landmark law targeting subversion, secession, terrorism and colluding with foreign forces.

The office has investigation and prosecution powers and will monitor intelligence related to national security and process cases, in some circumstances handing them over to the mainland for trial.

Zheng rose through the ranks of the local government in southern Guangdong province which borders Hong Kong, to serve as secretary general of the provincial Communist Party committee.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bahrain said on Wednesday it was committed to the creation of a Palestinian state in talks with US

-
Image
  Bahrain said on Wednesday it was committed to the creation of a Palestinian state in talks with US State Secretary Mike Pompeo, implicitly rejecting his push for Arab countries to swiftly normalise ties with Israel. Pompeo was in Manama as part of a Middle East trip aimed at building more ties between the Jewish state and the Arab world after a with the United Arab Emirates. However, Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa said he told Pompeo that his country remains committed to the Arab Peace Initiative — which calls for Israel's complete withdrawal from the Palestinian territories occupied after 1967, in exchange for peace and the full normalisation of relations. “The king stressed the importance of intensifying efforts to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict according to the two-state solution [...] to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the official (BNA) reported. The US chief diplomat has said he is h...
Read more

Lebanan: The death toll was expected to rise from the blast

-
Image
Lebanese rescue teams pulled out bodies and hunted for missing in the wreckage of buildings on Wednesday as investigations blamed negligence for a massive warehouse explosion that sent a devastating blast wave across Beirut, killing at least 135. More than 5,000 people were injured in Tuesday’s explosion at Beirut port, Health Minister Hamad Hassan said, and up to 250,000 were left without homes fit to live in after shockwaves smashed building facades, sucked furniture out into streets and shattered windows miles inland. Hassan said tens of people remained missing. Prime Minister Hassan Diab declared three days of mourning from Thursday. The death toll was expected to rise from the blast, which officials blamed on a huge stockpile of highly explosive material stored for years in unsafe conditions at the port. The explosion was the most powerful ever to rip through Beirut, a city still scarred by civil war that ended three decades ago and reeling from an economic meltdown and a ...
Read more

TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards blasted a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with missiles on Tuesday

-
Image
TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards blasted a mock-up of a US aircraft carrier with missiles on Tuesday during military exercises in sensitive Gulf waters, state television reported. The exercises — dubbed “Prophet Mohammed 14th” — were held near the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for a fifth of global oil output. The US Navy condemned the “irresponsible and reckless behaviour by Iran”, calling it an attempt “to intimidate and coerce”. The Iranian maritime manoeuvre was staged at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and its decades-old arch enemy the United States. Footage of the war games broadcast on state television showed the Guards’ air and naval forces readying for an attack off the country’s southwestern coast. Speedboats skimmed across the water in formation before ground forces fired cannons and a missile was launched from a helicopter. The mock-up of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier came into view with rows of dummy fighter jets on either side of its lan...
Read more