China Premier comments on new security law and Taiwan

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the design of the national security law for Hong Kong which was passed by China's legislature on Thursday is for "the steady implementation One-Country-Two-Systems and Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability".

The National People's Congress (NPC) approved the bill as it wrapped up an annual session that was held under intensive anti-coronavirus controls.

The law will alter Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, or Basic Law, to require the territory to enforce measures to be decided by the NPC's standing committee, a small body controlled by the ruling party that handles most lawmaking work.

The vote was 2,878 to 1 with six abstentions, in line with the high-profile but largely ceremonial body's custom of near-unanimous support for all legal changes decided by the ruling Communist Party.

The Pro-democracy opposition in Hong Hong meanwhile fears the move will infringe on infringe on basic freedoms, with some describing it as the end of the core values that set the former British colony apart from the rest of China.

Asked about the prospect for the China-US relations to be dragged into a new Cold War and the trend of decoupling of the two countries, Li said China and the US share extensive common interest and both stand to gain from cooperation and lose from confrontation.

"We have all along rejected the Cold War mentality, and decoupling of the two major economies of the world will do neither side any good," said Li. "It will also harm the world."

The premier also repeated Beijing's position of firm opposition to the independence of Taiwan where the pro-independence Democratic Progress Party has just started its second term of ruling.

He warned of foreign interference in the Taiwan question.

"Taiwan question is China's internal affair and we are opposed to any foreign interference," Li said. "The Chinese nation has the wisdom and the ability to handle appropriately its own affairs."