HONG KONG/BEIJING, June 30 (Reuters) – China’s parliament passed nationwide security legislation for Hong Kong on Tuesday, setting the phase for the most radical changes to the former British colony’s way of living because it returned to Chinese guideline 23 years ago.
State media is expected to publish details of the law – which can be found in reaction to in 2015’s often-violent pro-democracy demonstrations in the city and intends to take on subversion, terrorism, separatism and collusion with foreign forces – in the future Tuesday.
Amid worries the legislation will squash the international financial center’s rights and freedoms, and reports that the heaviest charge under it would be life jail time, popular pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong said he would stop his Demosisto group.
” It marks the end of Hong Kong that the world understood previously,” Wong stated on Twitter.
The legislation presses Beijing further along a collision course with the United States, Britain and other Western governments, which have said it deteriorates the high degree of autonomy the city was given at its July 1, 1997, handover.
The United States started eliminating Hong Kong’s unique status under U.S. law on Monday, halting defense exports and limiting the territory’s access to high-technology products.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, speaking at her re