Hong Kong’s legal ambiguity surrounding the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown has raised concerns among the city’s foreign business community. The government’s unwillingness to clarify the legal status of the commemorations, which are now deemed illegal under the Beijing-imposed national security law (NSL), is causing unease among companies who have long valued the British-inherited legal system as a key factor in choosing Hong Kong as a corporate base.
The NSL, which established vaguely-defined offences such as secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces, has led to an atmosphere of legal uncertainty in the territory. Eric Lai, a non-resident fellow at Georgetown Center for Asian Law, believes this is intentional: “The more ambiguous the red lines, the greater efficiency for the authorities to control the society, or to use…
