China to Propose Controversial Security Law in Hong Kong despite Protests
The law is expected to ban sedition, secession and subversion of the central government in Beijing.
Jonas Danquah 
China will move to pass a hugely controversial national security law for Hong Kong, in what could be the biggest blow to the city's autonomy and civil liberties since its handover to Chinese rule in 1997.
The move by China's rubber stamp parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), which is meeting in Beijing this week, is sure to fuel further anger and protests in the city, which was rocked by over six months of increasingly violent anti-government unrest last year.
The law, which is expected to ban sedition, secession and subversion of the central government in Beijing, will be introduced through a rarely used constitutional method that could effectively bypass Hong Kong's legislature.
News of the plans was met with immediate criticism by opposition lawmakers in Hong Kong, human rights groups and the US State Department.
"It is the end of 'one country, two systems'," said Dennis Kwok, a pro-democracy lawmaker, referring to the principle by which Hong Kong has retained limited democracy and civil liberties since coming under Chinese control. "(They are) completely destroying Hong Kong."
On Thursday, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus warned that "any effort to impose national security legislation that does not reflect the will of the people of Hong Kong" would be met with international condemnation.
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Ortagus noted that the State Department was delaying its submission to Congress of the annual Hong Kong Policy Act Report in order "to account for any additional actions that Beijing may be contemplating in the run-up to and during the National People's Congress that would further undermine Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy."
However, Chinese officials and state media defended the law as vital to protecting national security in the wake of last year's protests and a 17-year failure by the Hong Kong government to pass similar legislation, since the last effort was met with mass protests in 2003.
"National security is the bedrock underpinning a country's stability. Safeguarding national security serves the fundamental interests of all Chinese people, including our HK compatriots," NPC spokesman Zhang Yesui told a news conference in Beijing on Thursday.
Ahead of the annual NPC meeting, which starts Friday, Zhang announced that this year's session would review a proposal titled: "Establishment and Improvement of the Legal System and Implementation Mechanism for the Safeguarding of National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region."
He emphasized that Hong Kong is an inseparable part of China and, "in light of new circumstances and need," it is "highly necessary" for the NPC to exercise its constitutional power to deliberate such a proposal, adding that further details would be revealed Friday.
SOURCE: CNN
