HONG KONG -- By moving to outlaw a separatist political party under the territory's extant rules, Hong Kong looks to ward off Beijing's push for the island to enact unpopular national security controls.
Local authorities proposed a ban last month against the Hong Kong National Party, a pro-independence party formed in 2016. The territory invoked the "Societies Ordinance," a law enacted during the British colonial era to prohibit the operations of criminal syndicates and other groups "in the interests of national security."
