HONG KONG - China's top agencies overseeing Hong Kong gathered pro-Beijing supporters on Tuesday to discuss looming national security legislation, the latest sign that Beijing is nearing enactment of the controversial law despite widespread criticism that it will erode freedom in the Asian financial hub.
It's the latest in a growing drumbeat of reports from Chinese authorities and state media portraying the semi-autonomous city as being united in support of the bill, despite the absence of a formal consultation and a poll showing a significant number of residents opposing the legislation. The schedule of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, China's highest legislative body, sets up the possibility that law could be handed down in time for the July 1 anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule. Such timing would serve as pointed push back against the city's protest movement, since pro-democracy activists usually hold their biggest march of the year on the holiday.
Although Hong Kong is constitutionally mandated to implement national security legislation on its own, successive governments have failed to do so after an attempt in 2003 sparked mass protests.
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