BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) – Beijing announced details of a draft of new national security legislation for Hong Kong on Saturday, paving the way for the most profound change to the city’s way of life since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Beijing said the draft included a new national security office for Hong Kong to collect intelligence and handle crimes against national security, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
China says the law is aimed at tackling separatist activity, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, but critics fear it will crush wide-ranging freedoms that are seen as key to Hong Kong’s status as a global financial centre.
(Reporting by Vincent Lee and Greg Torode; writing by Anne Marie Roantree; editing by Jason Neely)
