Beijing security office in Hong Kong

Special Desk

It’s official. A new national security office has been opened in Hong Kong, placing mainland Chinese agents in the heart of the territory for the first time.

The office comes fast as one element of a sweeping new law which outlaws criticism of China’s government. Hong Kong was, until the new and controversial law was passed, the only part of China not subject to such policies. The law has caused alarm in Hong Kong but officials say it will restore stability after violent protests.

Also read: Chinese ambassador warns UK

The temporary base of the new office is a hotel in Causeway Bay, the commercial district next to Victoria Park, which had long been the focal point of pro-democracy protest marches and rallies in Hong Kong. The Chinese flag was raised outside the office, amid heavy security including a bomb disposal unit.

Luo Huining, head of the existing Hong Kong-Beijing liaison office, said the office would be “the envoy for Hong Kong’s safety and is also the gatekeeper of national security”.

Security agents from the mainland who are based in the new office will, for the first time, have the power to investigate people for a wide range of crimes defined by the new law, and potentially extradite them to the mainland for trial.

Also read: Now is the time to invest in renewable energy

The law gives Chinese mainland security operatives the right to investigate some national security cases that are “complex”, “serious” or “difficult”. Human rights organisations have pointed out how the law seems to undermine protections previously offered to defendants.

Trials can be held in secret (Article 41) and without a jury (Article 46). Judges can be handpicked (Article 44) by Hong Kong’s chief executive, who is answerable directly to Beijing. The law also reverses a presumption that suspects will be granted bail (Article 42).

It has been heavily criticised globally for undermining freedoms guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” agreed as part of the handover, which gave the territory a lot of control over how it ran itself.

Several prominent figures from the anti-Beijing protest movement have left Hong Kong or closed their social media accounts in the wake of the law.