Hong Kong’s constitutional affairs minister warned that the upcoming pro-democracy primary election may violate China’s new “national security” law for the territory.
Erick Tsang told the Oriental Daily on Thursday that the election set for Saturday and Sunday may be unlawful under Article 22 of the newly passed legislation. Article 22 prohibits “subversion,” which is defined as including “Overthrowing or undermining the basic system of the People’s Republic of China as established by the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China;” among other things.
The opposition has pledged to vote against Hong Kong’s budget. Tsang argued that doing so would be an act of subversion, and therefore, the primary itself would be subversion as well.
Legal scholar and activist Benny Tai responded to Tsang’s remarks on Facebook.
“Such absurd conclusion can be drawn if Secretary Tsang wants to arbitrarily interpret the provisions of the national security law based on political needs, that even a community-initiated vote can be considered in violation of the national security law,” he said.
The law was passed late last month and criminalizes acts such as secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces. The law was written so broadly and vaguely that it has been used to target dissidents.
