Middle Eastern businessmen shrug off Western concerns over Hong Kong’s national security law, city’s deputy justice minister says
- Deputy Justice Minister Horace Cheung says region’s businessmen have not raised any concerns over law that West claims has undermined investor confidence in city
- Cheung, who is accompanying city leader on week-long tour, says they instead want to discuss arbitration and mediation services that Hong Kong can offer
Hong Kong’s deputy justice minister has said Middle Eastern businessmen had “cast no doubt” on the Beijing-imposed national security law the West claims has eroded investor confidence in the financial hub, saying they were not “easily misled by inaccurate narratives”.
Horace Cheung Kwok-kwan told the Post that many investors he met while accompanying city leader John Lee Ka-chiu on his week-long visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had expressed interest in arbitration services provided by Hong Kong.
“I had prepared answers to address potential questions relating to the national security law. But nobody here ever cast doubt [on it] or asked about it,” Cheung said in Dubai on Wednesday when asked whether the law had undermined Hong Kong’s reputation as friendly to business.
“Our Middle East friends are independent thinkers, who make fair judgments. They are not easily misled by inaccurate narratives from the West.”
The law, imposed by Beijing in 2020 after anti-government protests, targets sedition, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. It allows for individuals and companies to be held criminally liable for activities conducted outside Hong Kong that endangers national security.
