West will no doubt pounce on anti-sanctions law: CE

Chief Executive Carrie Lam says she’s quite certain that “external forces, foreign governments and western media” will use the introduction of the mainland’s anti-sanctions law in Hong Kong to weaken people’s confidence in the SAR.

She said that’s why she believes the law should be incorporated into Annex 3 of the Basic Law by way of local legislation, so it can be better explained – instead of being promulgated directly by Beijing like the national security law was.

Lam said on Tuesday that she had already conveyed her views on this to the central government.

“The view I submitted… I said I support doing it through local legislation. This is because I am quite certain that some external forces, foreign governments or some Western media will speculate on this… to try and weaken [Hong Kong’s] status as a financial hub and weaken various sectors’ confidence in Hong Kong,” she said.

“Local legislation will allow us to better explain the implementation of the anti-sanctions law in Hong Kong, its legal framework, procedure and so on.”

Lam reiterated that the mainland law is only retaliatory in nature.

“Pay attention. The law is called ‘anti-foreign sanctions law’. It’s a countermeasure, but not an active one. The nation is not actively sanctioning anybody or any organisations. When somebody unreasonably sanctions national organsations or SAR officials, we must have the ability to counter it,” she said.