HONG KONG, June 30 (Reuters) – Hong Kong authorities have used a new national security law to target dissent and justify “censorship, harassment, arrests and prosecutions that violate human rights”, Amnesty International said on Wednesday, a year after the law was implemented.
Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law in June last year that sets out punishment for anything it deems as subversion, secession, colluding with foreign forces and terrorism with up to life in prison, setting the city on a more authoritarian path.
Authorities have said the law would affect an “extremely small minority” of people and that it had restored stability after months of often-violent protests in 2019. They have said rights and freedoms in the former British colony remain protected but they are not absolute.
Most high-profile democratic politicians and activists have been arrested under the new law or for protest-related charges, or are in self-exile.
“In one year, the National Security Law has put Hong Kong on a rapid path to becoming a police state and created a human rights emergency for the people living there,” said Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Regional Director Yamini Mishra.
“Ultimately, this sweeping and repressive legislation threatens to make the city a human rights wasteland increasingly resembling mainland China.”
China foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular news conference that Amnesty’s statements were “purely malicious slander.”
