Hong Kong’s justice minister has said that “soft resistance” is a political term instead of a legal one and should not be used randomly, while offering his definition for actions that officials have said continue to pose a threat to national security.
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok also said the promotion of national security should be proportionate and strike a balance with the city’s development, echoing a call from Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong affairs earlier this month.
Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, earlier warned that soft resistance still existed in the city five years after the Beijing-decreed national security law was enacted.
He said it had also evolved into new forms and that the city should not “forget the pain when wounds were healed”.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said that soft resistance definitely existed in the city and urged the public to stay vigilant against its various forms.
The term first appeared in 2021 in a speech by Luo Huining, then director of Beijing’s liaison office, to mark Hong Kong’s first National Security Education Day. The phrase, which has reportedly been in use in mainland China, has since been gradually adopted by local officials and later by judges.
