Hong Kong’s justice chief said it is “very legitimate and basic” for Hong Kong to enact a national security law as it is the special administrative region’s duty to protect national sovereignty, which encompasses national security.
During an interview with China Daily on Monday, Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah also slammed the US sanctions on officials who have been involved in enforcing the law as a violation of international laws.
Cheng noted that the protection of national security is an exercise of sovereign rights. Any country in the world not only has the right, but an obligation to pass legislation to preserve and protect its national security from being endangered, she said.
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... I am not at all frightened in continuing to execute my duties. If I am sanctioned because I am doing my job, I think it shows that I am doing the right thing ...
Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, Hong Kong's secretary for justice
She noted that the national security law of China is not applicable to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region because of the two vastly different legal systems.
“Therefore by enacting one that is entirely applicable to Hong Kong is a very legitimate and basic thing that should be done,” Cheng said, adding no other country has the right “as a matter of law, as a matter of common sense, as a matter of moral integrity” to say that this should not be done.
The SAR government promulgated the National Security Law for Hong Kong on June 30, after the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the country’s top legislature, unanimously passed the law on the same day.
Four major offenses are outlawed under the law, namely secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and conspiracy with foreign or external forces in Hong Kong. They carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. So far, three people in the city have been charged with offenses under the law, while about 40 people have been arrested on suspicion of violating the law.
Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah slams US sanctions during an interview with China Daily on Monday. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)
Following the enactment of the law, the US government announced sanctions on officials from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong who they deemed to be at the core of implementing the law. Cheng is one of the targeted people.
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Cheng said she was “appalled” to see the US is targeting individuals for sanctions, but she had seen this coming as the US has been using different ways to interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs for a while.
“However, I am not at all frightened in continuing to execute my duties. If I am sanctioned because I am doing my job, I think it shows that I am doing the right thing. It actually encourages me to continue to be stronger and do better at my job,” she said.
A senior counsel in private practice, Cheng, 62, was appointed Secretary for Justice on January 6, 2018. She said the sanctions have had no impact on her work but fell short of relating any inconvenience made to her personal life.
“My personal interest or my personal inconvenience as compared to that of national security is nothing,” she said.
