Protesters abroad rally against new Hong Kong security law
STORY: In London, demonstrators gathered outside the British Foreign Office, many of them Hong Kong people who now reside there, wearing masks for fear of reprisals.
Protesters included Finn Lau, one of eight foreign activists against whom Hong Kong officials issued an arrest warrant last July. He said he did not feel safe living the UK since the authorities had put a bounty on his head.
Benedict Rogers, who heads the rights group Hong Kong Watch, said the new law threatens Hong Kong people with "extremely severe prison sentences", adding that it's the latest example of China violating the Sino-British Joint Declaration to guarantee local people rights and freedoms after Britain returned the city to Chinese rule.
In Taiwan, one of the places with the largest Hong Kong diasporas, protesters arranged a staged fight between people wearing costumes of a Formosan Black Bear, representing Taiwan, and Winnie the Pooh, representing Chinese president Xi Jinping. The display ended with the Winnie the Pooh character behind bars.
The package, known as Article 23, punishes offences including treason, sabotage, sedition, the theft of state secrets, external interference and espionage with sentences ranging from several years to life imprisonment.
United States, Britain, Canada, the European Union and United Nations have raise concerns about the bill before it took effect on Saturday. China said it is strongly dissatisfied and resolutely opposed to the "denigration and smearing" by the United States of the law passed this week.
