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China's top liaison in Hong Kong defends controversial law

Luo Huining (L), the No. 1 Chinese Communist Party liaison in Hong Kong, called for heightened "national security" in Hong Kong, according to press reports on Wednesday. File Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE
Luo Huining (L), the No. 1 Chinese Communist Party liaison in Hong Kong, called for heightened "national security" in Hong Kong, according to press reports on Wednesday. File Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA-EFE

April 15 (UPI) -- China's top official to Hong Kong called for the adoption of a controversial law in the special administrative region on Wednesday, while condemning pro-democracy movements as a threat to the rule of law.

Luo Huining, the No. 1 Chinese Communist Party liaison in Hong Kong, said protests have weakened the national security of Hong Kong, and that the people of Hong Kong and the mainland must fight the global COVID-19 pandemic together, the South China Morning Post and The Guardian reported Wednesday.

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Luo was referring to Article 23 of Hong Kong's constitution, also known as the basic law. The bill never passed in 2003 following mass protests. If adopted, Article 23 would have prohibited "any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets."

On Wednesday Luo was quoted as saying protesters who filled the streets of Hong Kong in 2019 were returning as the first wave of COVID-19 subsides on the mainland.

"Even when the whole city needed to fight against the epidemic, some people sought chances to set fire to block the road and make explosives, threatening the personal safety of citizens and disrupting the social public order," Luo said.

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"I believe those who love the country and Hong Kong will reach a consensus to work promptly to maintain the national security legal system and enforcement mechanism."

Luo also condemned a slogan among protesters, "If we burn, you burn with us." Protesters have warned Beijing against interfering in Hong Kong's legislature and civil liberties.

China has said the novel coronavirus is retreating within its borders but remains guarded about new waves of infections.

On Wednesday at a regular press briefing, China's foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian slammed the United States, after U.S. President Donald Trump halted funding for the World Health Organization.

Zhao said the U.S. decision weakens the WHO's capabilities in the developing world, and added China has "already provided $20 million" in funding to the U.N. agency.

In 2019, the United States supplied $400 million in funding to the WHO.

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