Hong Kong ‘obligated to enact Article 23’: Justice chief
Hong Kong’s justice chief on Friday said the special administrative region has the constitutional responsibility to safeguard national security and enact a national security law, reassuring the public that there is no need to view the move negatively.
Speaking to the media after a Basic Law forum, Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said it is appropriate to enact the national security law with full consideration of the city’s existing system and legal framework, so the legislative process will be suitable for Hong Kong’s situation.
Yuen did not specify a timetable for the SAR government to enact Article 23 of the Basic Law. The article stipulates Hong Kong’s constitutional obligation to enact a national security law.
The legislation work will take time and require good timing, Yuen explained. He said the SAR government will try to build consensus in society first. It will then explain the law to the public when there is a favorable environment to introduce the legislation.
The justice chief said the government will listen to public views.
Yuen’s remarks came one day after Li Fei, chairman of the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law Committee under the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, delivered a keynote speech at a Basic Law forum.
In his speech, Li said adverse consequences that had appeared in Hong Kong, including the advocacy of separatism on campus, had much to do with the city not enacting Article 23.
Echoing Yuen on Hong Kong’s obligation to enact Article 23, Hong Kong SAR Basic Law Committee member and Peking University law professor Rao Geping said currently it’s hard to set a time for Hong Kong to finish enacting Article 23.
A key speaker at the forum, Rao said it will take time for the public to reach consensus on the law, making the timing uncertain. He anticipated the Legislative Council will find it difficult to finish deliberating on and passing the proposed law.
But Hong Kong, as a society ruled by law, should not allow any loopholes to exist in its legal system, Rao said, stressing that time is pressing.
Also on Friday, Vice-President of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies Lau Siu-kai said during a radio program that without enacting the national security law, Hong Kong would become an easy victim used by foreign forces to attack the nation’s overall security.
Hong Kong would also fail to fully and accurately implement the “one country, two systems” principle if it did not enact Article 23, negatively affecting the country’s goal in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Lau said.