Hong Kong is pushing tough new security laws with unusual speed
Under pressure from Beijing, officials in Hong Kong are rushing to pass a longstanding national security law that could impose life sentences for treason, insurrection and collusion with outside forces, and harsh punishments aimed at cracking down on dissent in Asia financial center further.
The law known as Article 23 has long been a source of public discontent in Hong Kong, a former British colony that was promised certain freedoms when the country came under Chinese rule in 1997. It is now expected to be issued with unusual speed. the coming weeks.
Chinese Communist Party officials, who have long pressured the city to pass this law, have emerged in recent days to make clear their urgency. After meeting with a senior Chinese official in charge of Hong Kong, the city’s top leader John Lee reportedly spoke cut short his visit to Beijing to return to the city, promising to bring the law into effect “as soon as possible.” Hong Kong’s legislature and Mr Lee’s office, the Executive Council, hastily convened meetings to discuss the law.
The full bill wasn’t made public for the first time until Friday, when lawmakers began reviewing it. It focuses on five crimes: treason, insurrection, sabotage, outside interference, theft of state secrets and espionage.
Mr Lee said the law is needed to close loopholes in an existing national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 that was used to quash pro-democracy protests and jail opposition lawmakers and activists. Mr Lee has portrayed Hong Kong as a city facing increasing national security threats, including from US and British spy agencies.
Critics say the law will further stifle freedoms in the city of 7.5 million by restricting their rights to speech and protest, while also restricting the autonomy granted to Hong Kong under the “one country, two systems” formula. China is further restricted.
Legal experts say criticism of the government can now be interpreted as sedition, a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison, which can be increased to 10 years if there is collusion with an “external force.”
“This law will have far-reaching implications for human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong,” said Thomas Kellogg, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law. “It is clear that the government continues to expand its national security tools to crack down on its political opponents.”
The government has sought to demonstrate that the legislation has been widely accepted, citing a month-long public consultation period – based on a document that described only in general terms the scope of the law – which officials said attracted mostly supportive comments yielded.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association has expressed concern about the law over possible new restrictions on press freedom.
The Hong Kong Bar Association had recommended that the law’s definition of sedition include intent to incite violence and limit the scope of the crime. However, the bill did not contain such wording.
Mr Kellogg said the speed at which the Government is bringing the law into force suggests that concerns raised during the consultation period were unlikely to have been taken seriously.
“This does indeed suggest that the Government had no real intention of seriously responding to public submissions, and were likely to implement their planned legislation from the outset,” Mr Kellogg said.
The government first tried to introduce Article 23 in 2003, but withdrew after hundreds of thousands of residents concerned it would restrict civil liberties held large protests
Olivia Wang research contributed.