Taiwan will provide Hong Kong people with ' necessary assistance' , Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said on Sunday as the protest movement in the former British colony regained its intensity in the face of China's plan impose a national security law.
The Chinese security bill for Hong Kong provides for rapid transposition of national security rules into the Basic Law - which acts as the Constitution for the semi-autonomous territory - in order to combat secessionist, subversive and terrorist activities as well as against foreign interference. A major demonstration, the largest since the establishment of containment to fight the epidemic of coronavirus, took place Sunday in Hong Kong where the police used tear gas to disperse the thousands of protesters.
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Taiwan has become a refuge for a small but growing number of pro-democracy activists fleeing Hong Kong, which has been the scene of a major protest movement for about a year. The Beijing bill poses a serious threat to Hong Kong's freedoms and judicial independence, said Tsai Ing-wen, whose relations with China are fresh.
Bullets and repression are not a way to manage the democratic and libertarian aspirations of the people of Hong Kong, the Taiwanese president added in a message posted on Facebook. "In response to the changing situation, the international community has reached out to the people of Hong Kong," she wrote on Sunday evening, and Taiwan will go even further with ongoing "support work" and "will provide to the people of Hong Kong all the assistance they need ”.
Taiwanese law provides for assistance to Hong Kong citizens whose security and freedom are threatened for political reasons.
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