Beijing’s foreign ministry office in Hong Kong fires double-barrelled blast at top US newspaper after editorial on domestic national security law
- China’s foreign ministry arm in Hong Kong sends second letter to The Wall Street Journal biting back after editorial criticises domestic national security law
- Hong Kong security deputy permanent secretary, takes aim at Britain’s The Guardian after ‘gross distortion’ of effects of new law
The commissioner’s office of China’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong on Friday issued its second statement in eight days that took a swipe at the news outlet’s editorial “Hong Kong’s Giant Leap Backward”, published earlier this month.
The news came as an official from Hong Kong’s Security Bureau sent a letter to rebut an article in The Guardian, an influential UK newspaper, which highlighted warnings by the city’s justice chief that “online criticism” could breach the legislation, mandated by Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
A spokesman for the commissioner’s office said its statement, which included the text of the letter to The Wall Street Journal, again rejected the editorial that criticised the national security legislation and its “bad remarks that pour cold water on Hong Kong’s developmental prospects”.
“The editorial asserts that the chief executive of Hong Kong can ‘now turn his attention to the economy, but it may be too late’,” the commissioner’s office letter said.
