Beijing has tapped local officials and business tycoons to sell a measure that could curtail the city’s civil and economic liberties and threaten its status as a financial center.
Pro-China canvassers are pressing wary Hong Kong residents for signatures. The city’s business tycoons are declaring their faith in the Chinese government. Local officials, senior and junior alike, are stepping up to pledge their support, mimicking wooden displays of fealty that are a staple of Communist Party politics in the mainland.
The Chinese government has mounted an aggressive campaign to cast a more positive light on its treatment of Hong Kong, where residents have pushed back sharply against Beijing’s increasingly heavy hand. The new drive is intended to demonstrate a broad level of support among civil servants, business leaders and the city’s more than seven million residents for a new national security law that Beijing is forcing the former British colony to adopt.
“They are doing everything they can to drum up a welcoming vibe about this new law,” said Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy lawmaker. “It’s simply sickening. Who are you trying to fool?”
The campaign represents a brazen attempt by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to drown out critics at a time when China is facing a global outcry over its plan for Hong Kong. With the United States threatening economic punishment in retaliation, Chinese officials are promoting the idea that they are responding to the will of the Hong Kong people and that their authoritarian policies enjoy broad public support.
The law has not yet been drafted, though China’s top legislative body on Thursday approved the plan to enact one, perhaps by September. The plan reflects Beijing’s frustration with pro-democracy protests that have roiled Hong Kong since last year. Critics worry that any law would undermine the territory’s liberties, including its tradition of free speech and an independent judiciary, allowing Beijing to stamp out dissent.
On Friday, China’s Ministry of Public Security, the national police and border control, promised in a statement on its website to apply “all of our efforts to direct and support the Hong Kong police to stop violence and restore order.” Hong Kong has its own police force, and the ministry does not currently have any legal enforcement authority in the territory.
Polling data on the new law is limited, but recent events suggest it will not be well received. Officials have avoided pushing such legislation since 2003 because it was seen as deeply unpopular. Pro-democracy candidates won 57 percent of the vote in district-level elections in November, trouncing their pro-Beijing rivals.
To counter that narrative, Mr. Xi, China’s most powerful leader in decades, is deploying the same political playbook in Hong Kong that he has used to consolidate his power in the mainland, using public displays of loyalty to project confidence at vulnerable moments.
Chinese officials use such shows of allegiance — known as biao tai, or expressing one’s position — to uphold Mr. Xi’s decisions to sideline political opponents and to tighten control of the media.
