Overnight, a Hong Kong Hotel Is Transformed Into China’s State Security HQ
First the construction signs went up, then a flagpole appeared and police officers started to swarm the streets. Within hours, a skyscraper hotel in a cozy neighborhood of bars, apartments and boutiques was transformed into something new: the headquarters of Beijing’s powerful new security agency for the city.
Soon after dawn Wednesday, Chinese and local officials formally inaugurated the Office for Safeguarding National Security, with Chinese state media invited to attend while many local and foreign journalists had to watch the proceedings from afar.
The rapid arrival of China’s security agents, handed sweeping powers to start policing the city under Beijing’s new national security law, underscored how quickly this cosmopolitan financial center is changing.
“We will strictly follow the law to fulfill our duty, under legal supervision, and we will not violate any individual’s or organization’s legal rights,” Zheng Yanxiong, head of the Office for Safeguarding National Security, told assembled guests, which included mainland officials and the political commissar at the city’s People’s Liberation Army garrison. Hong Kong’s top local official, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, welcomed their arrival.
“Having a law to follow is the starting point for maintaining national security,” Mrs. Lam said, according to remarks released by the government. “We must ensure that law enforcement is strict and violations of the law will be investigated.”
The speed at which the hotel, with a rooftop pool, was transformed into a base for mainland intelligence agents is the latest sign of Beijing’s quickstep approach to enforcing new laws designed to rein in a city that was gripped by mass and sometimes violent antigovernment protests last year.
Just a week ago, the new national-security law was approved by Beijing’s legislature in a fast-tracked process that bypassed local lawmakers.
Since then, officials have moved quickly to create the enforcement apparatus: appointing judges and prosecutors; forming a security committee with an adviser from Beijing that resolved to keep its decisions private; and issuing new rules giving local police broad powers to implement the legislation that targets secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign entities.
Claudia Mo, a pro-democratic member of Hong Kong’s legislature, said she was struck by the speed with which Beijing installed its new office and the building chosen to house it.
“The way it juts into the sky,” Ms. Mo said of the new security office. “It’s such a visual and physical reminder that big brother is watching.”
“The fact that it was opening first thing this morning—I didn’t know about it until after the fact,” she added. “It’s all secretive.”
In the Wednesday flag-raising ceremony, Mr. Zheng, installed by Beijing to lead the new office, was flanked by Mrs. Lam and the head of China’s local liaison office. He pledged to work with the Hong Kong government and other mainland institutions to enforce national security in the city while also respecting citizens’ freedoms.
The new office will wield broad powers to enforce the new national-security law, as well as act as a sort of minder of the local Hong Kong agencies tasked with enforcement. Mr. Zheng is a hard-liner who won attention for a crackdown on a rebellion in China’s neighboring Guangdong province a decade ago.
Under the new law, the office will also have the power to take over national-security cases from Hong Kong authorities if they meet certain criteria, including if a case involves a foreign power or if the office determines that the Hong Kong government is “unable to effectively enforce this law.”
“That could be a scenario where the judges aren’t making the right decisions” in the view of mainland authorities, said Sharron Fast, a lecturer at Hong Kong University, calling the new office’s powers “wide-ranging.”
Beijing’s new security office sits on the edge of the residential Tin Hau neighborhood, more than 2 miles from the central business district that is home to the city’s legislature and main government offices. It shares a street with bars and restaurants popular among the city’s expats, and overlooks a large park that was a frequent site for protests during pro-democracy demonstrations last year.
An employee at the former hotel, the Metropark, who answered the phone on Wednesday afternoon, said it was closed indefinitely.
CorrectionThe family name of Zheng Yanxiong incorrectly was given as Zhang in one instance in an earlier version of this article. (July 8, 2020)
Photo: Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and, far right, Zheng Yanxiong, head of the Office for Safeguarding National Security, at a ceremony Wednesday to open the China state security headquarters. - PHOTO: HONG KONG GOVERNMENT/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES
