We can’t count on it as an invariable rule. But if the Chinese Communist Party slams someone for criticizing the CCP and what it does, chances are good that some or all of the criticism being slammed is spot-on.
Hong Kong Free Press says that “Hong Kong rebukes Washington Post over editorial on national security updates” (June 15, 2026)
The Hong Kong government and legislature have blasted The Washington Post over “groundless allegations” against the city’s new national security amendments.
According to a statement issued late Saturday night, the government ”strongly condemns the wanton slander and groundless allegations made by The Washington Post in its article entitled ‘Hong Kong’s nightmare gets darker’, criticising the Safeguarding National Security (Procedural Matters) Regulation (Procedural Matters Regulation).”
“The article clearly exposes The Washington Post’s irrational anti-China stance and double standards, falling well short of what is expected of professional journalism,” the government also said.
The statement was in response to an editorial published on Friday, in which the newspaper criticised Hong Kong’s enactment of the new subsidiary legislation.
A central thesis of the Hong Kong government’s complaint is that “Hong Kong is a place underpinned by the rule of law.” The Hong Kong government is, it says, simply acting “in accordance with international law based on the Charter of the United Nations.” Empty invoking of the UN charter as a sacred relic must be doing really well in the CCP focus groups.
The wanton, slanderous, groundless, irrational, unprofessional June 12 Post editorial says:
At China’s behest, the city says people can now be charged retroactively for crimes that didn’t exist when they allegedly committed them.
Under updates which took effect this week, the city’s chief executive can classify any case as a national security crime under the 2020 law, even when the alleged offense was committed before that law took effect.
For good reasons, people cannot generally be told they violated a law that didn’t exist when they broke it. Yet Hong Kong’s leaders, beholden to China, don’t care….
The Hong Kong Bar Association, in a tepid statement to the South China Morning Post, said the power to apply the sweeping law retroactively should be exercised “seriously and with added prudence” and urged authorities to provide “as much explanation as possible.” Little chance of that, since national security cases are generally shrouded in secrecy, mostly on the whims of Beijing.
The Post’s criticism of the law is obviously valid.
But retroactive application of a law, typically law or use of power that is also arbitrary in other respects, is not really a new burden on Hongkongers. Former Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai, for example, has been sentenced to another twenty years in prison in large part for speech he uttered and association he engaged in before passage of the National Security Law of 2020. The CCP arbitrarily violates the rights of the innocent and may at some point specify in words called law that it is entitled to act this way.
Also see:
Government of Hong Kong: “HKSAR Government strongly condemns Washington Post editorial on Subsidiary Legislation safeguarding national security”
The Washington Post: “Hong Kong’s nightmare gets darker”
South China Morning Post: “New Hong Kong law allows national security procedures to extend to older cases”
