HONG KONG (Reuters) – Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong warned foreign powers on Thursday that they will learn a lesson if they try to use the global financial center as a “pawn” as tensions rise between China and Western governments over the city .
Luo Huining, director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office, spoke at a ceremony to mark the “day of education” for the national security law, which the authorities organized to promote general legislation imposed by China last year.
“We will teach a lesson to all foreign forces that intend to use Hong Kong as a pawn,” Luo said.
The new law drew criticism from the West for the reduction of rights and freedoms in the former British colony, which was promised a high degree of autonomy on its return to Chinese rule in 1997. Proponents say the law has restored order in the wake of the 2019 anti-government and anti-China protests.
China, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have changed sanctions in the last year, as security law and measures taken to reduce democratic representation in the city’s institutions have exacerbated tensions.
Earlier this week, a letter signed by more than 100 British politicians called on Boris Johnson’s government to expand the list of Chinese officials accused of “serious human rights abuses.”
National Security Education Day will be marked by school activities, games and performances, as well as a parade of police and other services marching the “goose step” march of the Chinese army.
The Chinese routine, in which troops keep their legs rigidly straight when lifting them off the ground and arms swing at a 90-degree angle in front of the chest, will replace British-style leg exercises at a parade of police and other forces. .
A booth set up at the Hong Kong Police College sold keychains that read “Warn Smoke Tears” and stickers that read “Disperse or we fire,” lines of police banners that were common targets during the 2019 protests.
‘SUPPORT! SUPPORT! SUPPORT!’
Elsewhere, in schools and cultural centers, Hong Kong residents have been asked to build “mosaic walls” of national security to instill, according to a government website, the idea that people should work together to protect their homeland.
Stickers and bookmarks that read “Support National Security, Protect Our Homes” were delivered to schools and kindergartens.
At Wong Cho Bau High School in the city, students gathered for a flag-raising ceremony.
“As a Chinese people, as a people in Hong Kong, all we have to do is be prepared and practice for the country,” director Hui Chun Lung told students.
Hui stressed the “stability” that the security law has brought to the city, before a two-minute video showing various students expressing support for the legislation.
Then, the students lined up to stick “wish cards” on a mosaic wall.
“Supporting the national security law is not a problem. Support! Support! Support! I hope we can be one with the continent “, wrote a student.
In February, Hong Kong unveiled guidelines on national security education, which include teaching students up to the age of six about collaborating with foreign forces, terrorism, secession and subversion – the four main crimes in the new law.
Chinese officials have partially blamed liberal studies for the city’s unrest.
Changes in the school curriculum and promotional campaigns are seen as signs that Beijing’s plans for the city go beyond the annulment of dissent and that it aims to revise society to bring it more in line with the Communist Party-led continent.
Additional reporting by Jessie Pang, Sharon Tam, Joyce Zhou and Aleksander Solum; Written by Marius Zaharia; Edited by Stephen Coates and Raju Gopalakrishnan