Holden Chow brushes off possibility of sanctions

DAB lawmaker Holden Chow says he is unconcerned about the possibility of foreign sanctions, following the passage on Tuesday of national security legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law. Speaking on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme, Chow said safeguarding national security was of prime importance to every jurisdiction and he didn't see anything wrong in this. "I don't fear any kind of sanctions and I believe that my Legco colleagues, and the government team, will not fear any sort of threatening sanctions. And we believe we are doing the right thing for the city," he said. Chow also said foreign governments had been making ill-intentioned smears and threats. "You also see that the US consul-general in Hong Kong, earlier on, he falsely accused our Article 23 legislation and he even called for the release of Jimmy Lai," he said. "Well you can see he is sort of trampling our rule of law." Lai, founder of the now-defunct Apple Daily, faces two conspiracy charges of collusion with foreign forces, including by allegedly calling for international sanctions against China and the Hong Kong SAR. He's also accused of conspiring to publish seditious publications. He has pleaded not guilty. Chow said, now that Article 23 legislation had been passed, it was time to reach out to international business and explain to them that they need not have any concerns about the bill, while countering, what he described as, smears and falsehoods by foreign governments, politicians, and western pundits. He said Article 23 was about making sure that Hong Kong had a safer environment. "Of course, if you read the details of the bill, our Article 23 legislation design is more lenient than many other foreign jurisdictions," he said. "Take the UK as an example, they will even do polygraph tests but in Hong Kong we don't do that." Mainland authorities have congratulated the SAR on enacting Article 23 national security legislation, calling it a milestone in the development of the One Country, Two Systems principle.