China’s leaders ‘arrogant and aggressive’ over Hong Kong security law, EU politician says

Beijing has moved ‘beyond being assertive’, says Reinhard Butikofer, chairman of European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with China

Hong Kong’s high level of autonomy ‘not just a unilateral gift from some Beijing communist leader [but] based on an agreement with the British’, he says

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Reinhard Butikofer says Beijing is “squarely ignoring” its international treaty obligations by proposing a national security law for Hong Kong. Photo: AFP

Published: 10:00pm, 27 May 2020Updated: 8:52am, 28 May 2020

Beijing’s proposals for a national security law for Hong Kong are “aggressive and arrogant”, the head of the European Parliament department that handles relations with China said on Tuesday, ahead of an upcoming meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.

China had been “strongly underscoring an impression that people have been gathering during the development of the Covid-19 crisis … that the leadership in Beijing is moving beyond being assertive, into being aggressive and arrogant”, said Reinhard Butikofer, chairman of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with the People’s Republic of China.

His comments add to the calls from Western nations for Beijing to face consequences for promulgating a national security law for the embattled city.

Almost a year after millions of people took to the streets of Hong Kong to protest against plans to introduce a now-shelved extradition bill, fresh disputes broke out on Sunday following Beijing’s proposal, which it says is designed to protect against secession, subversion and terrorist activities in the city.

Politicians from the European Union (EU), United States and elsewhere have spoken out against the planned legislation.

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