Security key issue for Hong Kong, nation

National security has been a hot topic recently. Wang Zhimin, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, attended the first National Security Education Day symposium in Hong Kong last Sunday. He took the chance to hit out at pro-independence activists for engaging in activities that sought to split the motherland and subvert the national regime.

There were suggestions from some quarters of Hong Kong society that the SAR government will launch the process of national security legislation, as stipulated by Article 23 of the Basic Law, soon. In response, the government said there was as yet no timetable for such legislation but officials had been working hard to create favorable conditions. “Favorable conditions” understandably refers to a peaceful and rational atmosphere in society, as well as public confidence in the central and local governments, as Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor suggested. Aside from these conditions, there are also other key factors.

Firstly, Article 23 itself has provided the essential condition for national security legislation. Under Article 23, Hong Kong is obliged to legislate against treason, secession, sedition or subversion. This is a constitutional duty for both the SAR government and Hong Kong people. The Macao SAR Government fulfilled this inevitable constitutional duty, enacting national security legislation in 2009. Moreover, the National Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, enacted in July 2015, requires both SAR governments to fulfill their obligations in safeguarding national security, further emphasizing such constitutional obligation. That means the condition for national security legislation has already existed in the sense of legal foundation.

Secondly, a strong sense of national security is another key factor. There are lessons to be drawn from 2003, when the last attempt to enact national security legislation was shelved amid strong resistance. The 2003 failure suggests many Hong Kong people did not value “national security” as much as civil liberty, which was considered one of Hong Kong’s core values; they therefore resisted the legislation attempt for fear of having their freedom compromised. Hong Kong people’s general lack of a national security concept could be attributed to the city’s colonial history. We can hardly deny that people in Hong Kong have a relatively weak notion about national security and a vague definition of it. So the core question is: How can we promote national security as a core value that Hong Kong people will safeguard.

National identity is a crucial issue. But it is hard to promote the importance of national security to those who do not consider themselves members of the nation or do not recognize China as their motherland. When we study the surveys on national identity over recent years, people in Hong Kong — especially the younger generation — generally have a relatively weak sense of being Chinese. It is time to review whether there are some deficiencies in our education system.

The significance of national security lies in the concept of “being on the same boat”. National security and Hong Kong’s local security are closely related. This is the most important message put forward by Wang in his Sunday speech. Wang said safeguarding national security meant defending Hong Kong’s fundamental well-being, the “one country, two systems” governing principle for the city and President Xi Jinping’s goal to achieve a “rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”. On the one hand, Hong Kong is close to the Chinese mainland geographically, economically and socially. This implies that any act sabotaging national security would not only undermine national interests but also bring havoc upon Hong Kong. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s lack of an appropriate law to safeguard national security has created a loophole in the city that poses a threat to the country’s overall interests.

Hong Kong people have a common interest with the nation in safeguarding national security. Wang urged Hong Kong people, regardless of their political backgrounds, to unite and work together to safeguard national security as the city is still short of in-depth and sound policy for such a cause. The concept of national security is beyond legislation although the latter is a means to safeguard the former. Favorable conditions are essential factors; but let’s study how the Chinese “iron man” Wang Jinxi, who was a model worker and contributed his life to the Daqing Oil Field, thinks about “conditions”. He said: “When the conditions exist, go ahead; when they don’t exist, then create them and go ahead.”