‘Relax and take a deep breath’: Beijing slams Washington Post over ‘alarmist’ Hong Kong Article 23 law editorial
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- Piece in UK’s Times claims people will be jailed for keeping copies of now-defunct Apple Daily tabloid, while Washington Post editorial says ‘repression’ will expand
A spokesman for the foreign ministry’s arm in Hong Kong said in an open letter to The Washington Post’s editorial board on Tuesday that it was “deeply shocked” by the paper’s “ignorance and double standard” on the city after reading a piece titled, “With the new security law, Hong Kong doubles down on repression”.
The editorial published on Sunday said the end of a one-month public consultation period last month for the domestic national security law was “another sad milestone in Hong Kong’s downward trajectory”.
“Regarding your alarmist assertion that ‘China has crushed what had been one of its greatest assets,’ well, just relax and take a deep breath,” a spokesman for the Commissioner’s Office of the Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong said in the English version of the letter.
It dismissed the paper’s forecast on Hong Kong’s future in relation to the current legislation of the home-grown national security law required under Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
“You are right in referring to February 28 this year, the end of the Article 23 legislation consultation period, as a ‘milestone’, but it is a milestone marking Hong Kong’s upwards trajectory from chaos to stability and prosperity, rather than ‘downward trajectory’ in your gloomy forecast,” the letter said.
The spokesman also responded to the paper’s criticism of a court case involving 47 opposition figures accused of a conspiracy to commit subversion over an alleged plot to topple the city’s government.
