TORONTO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2020) Canada is consulting with allies and reviewing the implications of the newly enacted Chinese law on national security in Hong Kong, Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said in a statement on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the highest legislative authority of China, the standing committee of the National Peoples' Congress, passed the draft law on national security in Hong Kong which criminalizes subversion, separatism, terrorism and collusion with third countries. Chinese President Xi Jinping enacted the law shortly later.
"Canada is actively consulting with allies and reviewing the implications of this decision," Champagne said.
Canada's top diplomat expressed concern about the adaptation of the new law and that it would "undermine people's freedom and the One Country, Two Systems framework."
The controversial legislation, which has triggered new waves of protests in Hong Kong and a backlash abroad over the 40 days it had been under review by Chinese authorities, has paved the way for Beijing to establish an agency in Hong Kong to supervise the implementation of new security provisions.
Despite the concerns of local pro-democracy advocates over the new law's negative impact on civil liberties in the city, both Beijing and Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam have stressed that the law only aims to target subversive and terrorist activities without harming existing democratic liberties of local residents.
Under the 1984 Joint Declaration of the United Kingdom and China, Hong Kong went under Chinese rule in 1997 as a special administrative unit whose citizens would enjoy exclusive political, economic and personal freedoms until 2047 under the "one country, two systems" concept.
