Hong Kong proposes to let city leader decide what counts as national security offense

HONG KONG — The government proposed legislation Monday that would allow the city’s leader to designate certain criminal acts as national security offenses, stepping up its efforts to stamp out challenges to its rules in the city where critics say freedoms have been eroding. After massive democracy protests rocked the Asian financial hub in 2019, Beijing imposed a national security law that has been used to arrest many leading activists. The city's government in 2024 enacted another s