In Pictures: Hong Kong unveils new national security exhibition as officials urge vigilance against ‘risks’
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong has unveiled a new exhibition about national security, with the city’s leader John Lee citing a recent key political meeting the “third plenum” and urged vigilance against “security risks.”
The exhibition, which occupies over 1,100 square metres of the Museum of History in Tsim Sha Tsui, will open to the public on Wednesday. It features installations dedicated to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s ideas of governance, and a lunar soil sample collected during a China National Space Administration mission.
Lee proposed the idea of launching a national security exhibition during his second Policy Address last October, saying it would promote residents’ sense of safeguarding national security and boost patriotism.
Addressing those attending the exhibition launch on Tuesday morning in Mandarin, Lee described safeguarding national security as an “ongoing” obligation. “We must strengthen our crisis awareness… in the face of fast-changing international situations, constant geographical conflicts and collective suppression by foreign forces,” Lee said.
Lee also referred to the Third Plenum, a key political meeting held every five years in which China’s Communist Party maps out the country’s long-term social and economic goals, which was overseen by Xi in Beijing last month.
Lee said the meeting had “far-reaching significance” for the country’s development and that it had stressed adopting a “holistic approach to national security,” an idea raised by Xi in 2014 that suggested incorporating the protection of national security into multiple areas, from the economy to culture to space technology.
Speaking at the same event, head of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong Zheng Yanxiong said the city must not neglect national security even as society seemed calm.
“As people look for a comfortable and relaxed life, [we] must remind everyone to stay on guard and aware that the sharp blade of the law is ever present,” Zheng said in Mandarin.
Zheng also referred to the Third Plenum, saying many of the policy changes introduced related to Hong Kong, urging the city to leverage its advantage of being “backed by the country and connected to the world.”
He also lauded Hong Kong athletes’ performance at the ongoing Paris Olympics, saying fencers Edgar Cheung and Vivian Kong, both of whom clinched gold, had won honour for the city and the country.
Dong Jingwei, the head of Beijing’s Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, said the new exhibition would be a permanent base for promotional and educational efforts, as well as an important platform for demonstrating China’s holistic approach to national security.
Cui Jianchun, the commissioner of China’s Foreign Ministry’s office in Hong Kong, said the gallery would offer young people in the city an “important window” to understanding national security.
Cui added that history had shown that staying vigilant was key to long-term prosperity and stability.
Over 40 exhibits will be opened to the public for free from Wednesday, with items relating to China’s modern history as well as the large-scale pro-democracy protests and unrest that shook Hong Kong in 2019.
The protests were put to a halt when the city was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and as Beijing imposed a national security law that June, criminalising secession, collusion with foreign forces, subversion and terrorism.
Miniature models of Chinese space craft, tanks and jet fighters, as well as two robot dogs, were seen by an HKFP reporter at the launch on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony, security chief Chris Tang said authorities expected over 100,000 people to visit the exhibition each year.
Tang declined to comment related costs, saying that the security law prevented such expenditure from being disclosed.
He added that authorities had arranged for youth groups from the city’s disciplinary forces to visit the gallery over the next two weeks.
The Museum of History was previously home to an exhibition called Hong Kong Story, which consisted of eight galleries covering the city’s pre-historical period up to the handover in 1997. It closed in October 2020 for a two-year revamp but has yet to reopen.
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