Security Law to Root Out ‘Seeds of Unrest’. to further silence dissent in the once-freewheeling

 

Hong Kong Pushes New Security Law to Root Out ‘Seeds of Unrest’

Warning of threats posed by spies, the city’s leader expressed confidence that the new law would enjoy public support. “They will love it,” he said.

The Hong Kong government will enact a long-shelved security law to curb foreign influence and expand the definition of offenses like stealing state secrets and treason, officials announced on Tuesday, in a move expected to further silence dissent in the once-freewheeling Chinese territory.

The proposed law would lay out five major areas of offenses: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets, sabotage and external interference. Some of the definitions would echo mainland Chinese treatments of those offenses.