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Updated July 6th, 2021 at 16:55 IST

Hong Kong leader says 'ideologies' and actions pose threat to national security

Hong Kong leader said that “ideologies” posed risks to the national security of the semiautonomous Chinese city and called for the public to report violators.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
NSL
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on July 6 said that “ideologies” posed risks to the national security of the semiautonomous Chinese city and called for parents, teachers and even religious leaders to monitor the behaviour of teenagers and report the ones who violate the law. Since China imposed a controversial national security law to increase its control on Hong Kong, the former British colony has taken several authoritarian steps. 

However, at her weekly news conference, the Hong Kong leader denounced the mourning of the death of a 50-year-old who killed himself after stabbing a policeman on July 1. Thursday also marked the anniversary of the former British colony's return to Chinese rule and the Chinese Communist Party's centenary. Lam had termed the incident "very regrettable". "This action clearly goes against the stability of our society and is against the law," she said after the man attacked the police.

"For a long time, citizens have been exposed to wrong ideas, such as achieving justice through illegal means," Lam told reporters while adding that not only "public order" acts but also ideology also poses risk to national security. Lam said she hopes the members of the public will “openly condemn threats of violence.” She said, “They should not be wrongly influenced by the idea that there is only government tyranny ... but that breaking the law is in order if you’re trying to achieve a certain cause...They should not be influenced into thinking that they can find excuses to inflict violence.”

After Lam made her address, Hong Kong police arrested nine people including six secondary students on terror charges. The police announced on July 6 that all nine people, including five males and four females aged between 15 and 39, were taken into custody for allegedly trying to manufacture a powerful explosive. Hong Kong’s senior superintendent Steve Li from the new national security unit told the reporters that “the operation we conducted yesterday was against gangsters (who) tried to manufacture TATP explosive inside a homemade laboratory inside a hostel.” 

Arrests made over China’s national security law

The arrests in Hong Kong came two years after several months of citywide pro-democracy demonstrations took place against China’s increasing authority over the region. The nine people were arrested a year after China imposed a harsh new security law on the former British colony. TATP is the explosive triacetone triperoxide. According to the police, the groups made the same in a homemade laboratory in a hostel. 

As per the Associated Press report, the police also said that the nine people planned to use the TATP to bomb courts, cross-harbour tunnels, railways and even planned to put some of these explosives in trash bins on the street “to maximize damage caused to the society.” Authorities have reportedly also said that they seized the apparatus along with the raw materials used to make the TATP and the “trace amount” of the explosive. Hong Kong’s law enforcement also found operating manuals and around 80,000 Hong Kong dollars in cash.

IMAGE: AP
 

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Published July 6th, 2021 at 16:55 IST

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