By Jerome A. Cohen
Here’s a statement on May 29 by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) vowing to “fully direct and support Hong Kong police” to stop violence and chaos. The timing is fascinating. At a time when some pro-Beijing elite in Hong Kong are seeking to assure the public that the establishment of national security organs in Hong Kong has minimal significance and that their offices there will only play a modest, quiet role similar to that of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office, why does the MPS make a statement that, at least in the minds of millions, will maximize anxiety about the forthcoming national security legislation by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee?
To be sure, other millions in Hong Kong may feel greater comfort at the prospect of the notoriously efficient MPS directing the Hong Kong police and thereby enhancing prospects for suppressing violence, vandalism and even peaceful mass protests, but they are not the ones raising international alarms in opposition to the forthcoming legislation.
At a time when the forthcoming legislation is being finalized, is this a move by the MPS to assert its preeminent role in controlling Hong Kong’s security, upstaging the Ministry of State Security (MSS) that the non-Mainland media often assumes will play a dominant role? The two major PRC secret police institutions often have had difficulties sorting out their respective responsibilities on the Mainland where foreign and HK elements are involved. Although generally receiving less media attention, the “guobao”, national security division, of the MPS has seemed ever present in restricting and punishing the human rights activists and lawyers I have been involved with over the years, not the MSS. But perhaps that is because the MSS usually operates more unobtrusively.
Can the people of Hong Kong gain comfort from this MPS announcement?