National security laws are a common global practice: experts

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature, is reviewing a draft decision to formulate a national security law for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) to safeguard national security in Hong Kong.

The law if passed reflects a conventional practice among global countries to prevent their administrative regions from being void of national security, observers said, citing the national security laws that many other countries have enacted over the years.

Similar to the US, European governments also attach great importance to establishing and improving their national security legislation, Cui Hongjian, director of EU studies at the China Institute of International Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times.

Plagued by separatist forces, Spain issued its National Security Strategy in 2013 and enacted a National Security Law in 2015.

The Spanish government was reportedly aiming to deal with Catalonian separatists with the national security law after their violent demonstrations last October. It enacted the law, allowing it to mobilize “all police forces” to avoid public-order chaos and economic losses if necessary.

Based on the national security law, the Catalonian regional government must obey the Spanish central government in the act’s enforcement, such as letting national police take command of the local autonomous police force.

Almost the whole of Europe supported the Spanish central government in dispatching [police] to keep order in Catalonia when the riots took place last year, Cui told the Global Times.

“It is widely accepted that when it comes to national security issues, a country’s central government is entitled to directly [manage] its [autonomous] regions,” Cui added.

Observers also mentioned Russia’s national security laws. In 1992, the Russian federation promulgated four laws relating to state security in the face of a series of geopolitical and terrorist threats after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

A new version of Russia’s National Security Strategy for 2020, signed by President Vladimir Putin at the end of 2015, emphasized strengthening defense as a national priority.

The strategy stated the main threats to the security of Russia and its society, including radical activities by foreign and international non-governmental organizations, financial and economic institutions as well as individuals utilizing nationalism and religious extremism ideologies, such as instigating the notorious “color revolutions.”

Facing a refugee crisis, an increasing number of European countries have changed or improved their security legislations to prevent possible terrorist attacks, Cui said. Once dubbed as one of the safest countries in the world before suffering several terrorist attacks in recent years, Germany,

for instance, has undertaken many laws and policies under the framework of its Basic Law.

Germany improved its national security law system over time. It passed the German Emergency Acts in 1968 to restrain the leftwing rebel organizations during the Cold War, and enacted a series of laws in the fight against arms and drug trafficking. It passed laws specifically targeting terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.

China had a relatively late start in introducing its comprehensive national security legislation compared with other major countries, Cui told the Global Times. It started implementing the new National Security Law in 2015 based on the law’s previous version made in 1993.

“China to some extent adopted the experience of the West, including the US and European countries, in making national security laws,”

Cui said, adding that the fight against extremist behavior like secession and subversion has been the basis of legislation in various countries.