HONG KONG (Reuters) – Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong on Thursday warned foreign powers on Thursday that they would be taught a lesson if they tried to use the global financial center as a ‘pawn’, as tensions between China and Western governments over the city escalated. .
Luo Huining, the director of China’s liaison office in Hong Kong, spoke at a ceremony to mark an “education day” for the national security law, which the authorities organized to promote the sweeping legislation imposed by China last year.
“We will give a lesson to all foreign troops who want to use Hong Kong as a pawn,” said Luo.
The new law was criticized by the West for restricting rights and freedoms in the former British colony, which was promised a high degree of autonomy upon its return to Chinese rule in 1997. Supporters say the law has restored order after massive protests against the government and China in 2019.
China, the United States, Britain, and the European Union have traded sanctions in the past year as the security law and measures taken to reduce democratic representation in the city’s institutions have increased tensions.
Earlier this week, a letter signed by more than 100 British politicians asked Boris Johnson’s government to expand a list of Chinese officials accused of “gross violations of human rights.”
The National Security Education Day will be marked with school activities, games and shows, and a parade of police and other services conducting the Chinese army’s ‘goose step’ march.
The Chinese routine, in which troops keep their legs stiffly straight when lifted off the ground and swing arms at a 90-degree angle in front of the chest, will replace British-style foot exercises during a parade of police and other troops.
A booth at the Hong Kong Police Academy sold key rings that read “Tear Smoke Warning” and stickers that read “Disperse or we fire,” replicas of police banners that were common during the 2019 protests.
‘SUPPORT! SUPPORT! SUPPORT!’
Elsewhere, in schools and cultural centers, residents of Hong Kong were invited to build “mosaic walls” for national security to raise the idea, according to a government website, that people should work together to protect their homeland.
In schools and kindergartens, stickers and bookmarks have been delivered saying “Maintain National Security, Protect Our Home”.
At Wong Cho Bau Secondary School in the city, students gathered for a flag ceremony.
“As Chinese, as Hong Kong people, we must be prepared and make an effort for the country,” director Hui Chun Lung told the students.
Hui emphasized the “stability” that the security law brought to the city before showing a two-minute video of several students expressing their support for the legislation.
The students lined up to stick “greeting cards” on a mosaic wall.
“Supporting the national security law is not an issue. Support! Support! Support! I hope we can be one with the mainland, ”wrote one student.
In February, Hong Kong unveiled guidelines for national security education, including teaching students as young as six years old about colluding with foreign forces, terrorism, secession and subversion – the four major crimes in the new law.
Chinese officials have partially blamed liberal studies for the restlessness of the city’s youth.
The changes in the school curriculum and promotion campaigns are seen as signs that Beijing’s plans for the city go beyond clearing dissent and that it seeks a societal overhaul to bring it more in line with the Communist Party ruled. mainland.
Additional reporting by Jessie Pang, Sharon Tam, Joyce Zhou, and Aleksander Solum; Written by Marius Zaharia; Edited by Stephen Coates and Raju Gopalakrishnan