Hong Kong, June 28 (EFE).-The Hong Kong government criticized the Taiwanese authorities for what it perceives as a discrediting of its recent national security law, after Taipei issued a high-level travel warning for the city, calling it as a “political tactic.”
The Hong Kong administration assured that it had constitutional responsibilities to guarantee national security, like other customary law jurisdictions, local media reported today.
“However, Taiwanese authorities turned a blind eye, maliciously smeared and demonized the national security law and the National Security Safeguarding Ordinance, exposing their double standards,” read a statement posted on its website late Thursday.
Following the enactment of the national security law imposed by Beijing in June 2020, the former British colony established the National Security Safeguarding Ordinance, indigenous security legislation known locally as Article 23.
The controversial regulations include a series of crimes that could carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, including treason, insurrection, inciting a member of the Chinese armed forces to mutiny, as well as collusion with the aim of endanger national security.
Taiwan on Thursday raised its travel alert for China and the semi-autonomous territories of Hong Kong and Macau to the second-highest level, orange, shortly after Beijing announced new measures to punish supporters of the island’s “independence”, including the death penalty.
The spokesperson for the Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council – the body in charge of relations with China – Liang Wen-chieh, assured at a press conference on Thursday that the provisions approved by Beijing represent “a serious threat to the personal security” of the Taiwanese, whom he urged not to travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau unless strictly necessary.
“If you must travel to these places, it is recommended to avoid discussing sensitive topics and issues, taking photos of ports, airports or military sites and carrying books on politics, history or religion,” Liang said.
The official stressed that in recent years there have been “quite a few cases” of Taiwanese citizens who were “illegally detained, detained or interrogated” when traveling to China, whose Government considers the island – autonomously governed since 1949 – as a “rebellious province.” ”.
China last week released a set of judicial guidelines aimed at punishing “Taiwan separatists,” including measures such as the death penalty and trials in absentia for defendants.
Taiwanese President William Lai (Lai Ching-te), considered a “secessionist” and a “troublemaker” by the authorities in Beijing, said on Monday that China “has no right to punish the Taiwanese people for their beliefs or to persecute its citizens beyond its borders.”
“According to China, not supporting unification is equivalent to being an independence supporter. It doesn’t matter if you are a supporter of Taiwan, the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name) or the Republic of China in Taiwan, they are all considered independence supporters,” said the president, who reiterated his offer of dialogue with Beijing, suspended since the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) came to power in 2016.EFE
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