Chris Tang told RTHK’s NSL Chronicles III, aired on Monday, that even though Hong Kong has become much more stable with the passage of the laws, national security threats still exist.
“You can see that everyday a lot of external forces keep smearing [Hong Kong] or using other ways to endanger national security,” he said.
“Moreover, a lot of their agents in Hong Kong still deploy a lot of soft resistance – making, for example, false claims to incite discontent with the government on every issue.
“We have to be very careful with these kinds of soft resistance.”
He went on to say that those who have left Hong Kong have continued to smear the SAR and colluded with external forces to endanger national security, and there are domestic terrorism activities to incite discontent towards the administration.
However, Tang noted that the public has become more aware of national security.
For instance, more than 860,000 reports have been lodged with the national security hotline since it was set up in November 2020.
Tang also said it is untrue to say that the two laws have restricted residents’ freedom to hold demonstrations and assemblies.
There were 392 protest applications in 2024, representing a rise of 15 percent compared with 2023, Tang said, and the government had not rejected any of them.
