NEW LAW ‘DRAWS NO CONCERNS’ AT FORUM
Chief secretary says not a single government or business representative at economic conference flagged worries about security law with him
Chief Secretary Eric Chan Kwok-ki has said no one at a major Asian economic forum raised concerns over the city’s new domestic national security law with him, adding the commercial sector must welcome the stable environment the legislation is designed to provide.
The Safeguarding National Security Ordinance was also the subject of a spirited defence by Basic Law experts, who argued the axing of remission for national security prisoners was not a violation of human rights.
Chan yesterday said the law had not come up in talks with political figures and the business sector at the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual international economic summit held on Hainan island.
The enactment of the legislation is considered a constitutional responsibility under Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law.
“No government and business representatives flagged their worries on the legislation of Article 23 to me,” he added. “Actually, no one has even raised the issue of Article 23.”
Chan emphasised it was “easily understandable” that no one had concerns as the business sector valued a relatively safe and stable social environment.
“I believe such a good environment for doing business must be welcomed by the businessmen,” he said.
Chan hit out at criticisms of the new law from some Western media and questioned why they had not reported on how the “2019 black violence” affected business confidence in the city at the time.
“Obviously, it is because they do not want Hong Kong to have a good ordinance to safeguard Hong Kong,” he said.
Chan said the 2019 antigovernment protests were a clear example of activity that destabilised the city and caused uncertainty.
“I do not think petrol bombs [being hurled], protests and storms happening every day are a good environment for doing business,” he said.
Chan was speaking about a week after the ordinance was passed by unanimous vote by the Legislative Council after a marathon 12-day series of sessions.
The domestic legislation was designed to complement the 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law, passed in the wake of months of protest in 2019.
Chan said both pieces of legislation were drawn up to protect Hong Kong and guarantee a good environment for the public and business.
Maria Tam Wai-chu, former vice-chairwoman of the Basic Law Committee, which advises the central government, also expressed her support for the legislation in a local newspaper op-ed published on Wednesday.
In the piece, she argued that the scrapping of early release for certain prisoners was not a punishment, nor a human rights violation.
“The new rules are not punitive measures, as they neither increase additional penalties nor constitute illegal custody,” she wrote.
On Monday, inmate Adam Ma Chun-man, known as the “second-generation Captain America” for dressing as the Marvel character at demonstrations, was denied early release as he served prison time for secession-based offences.
Ma was originally scheduled for release that day, subject to remission for his five-year sentence.
But Tam said early release was “never a necessary right to prisoners” and subject to the correctional services commissioner’s discretion.
Before the new law took effect, prisoners could receive early release for good behaviour.
The new ordinance stipulates such prisoners “must not be granted remission” unless the correctional services commissioner is satisfied it will not compromise national security.
The policy change also affects defendants currently on trial for national security offences, as well as prisoners who started serving time before the law took effect.
Albert Chen Hung-yee, a former Basic Law Committee member, said residents, media professionals and academics had a very slim chance of falling foul of the legislation.
“It might appear that the scope of [the new ordinance] is broad and the intensity is relatively stringent, but I anticipate that prosecutions made under the new law will be fewer than the Beijingdecreed national security law when it was first enacted,” he wrote in a column for another newspaper.
The academic also touched on external interference, another offence introduced under the ordinance that has sparked concerns from foreign representatives and business groups over what activities would fall under the law.
Chen said the concept was not exclusive to Hong Kong and existed in other jurisdictions.
Even individuals who did have some contact with foreign forces would not violate the law if they avoided behaviour considered to be “improper means” and produced an “interference effect”, he said.
He predicted that external interference provisions would typically target cases where foreign forces interfered in Hong Kong politics through local entities, adding that the public had no cause for concern.
Chief Secretary Chan said he hoped the legislation could allow for Hong Kong to accelerate efforts to boost development and the economy, starting with government bids to explore global cooperation opportunities, as well as integrating into China’s development.
Chan said exchanges between the Greater Bay Area and Southeast Asian countries to aid China’s ability to better deal with unilateralism and protectionism were also on the agenda.
The bay area refers to Beijing’s plan to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine mainland cities into an economic powerhouse.
I believe such a good environment for doing business must be welcomed by the businessmen ERIC CHAN, CHIEF SECRETARY
The chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee has urged Asian governments and business leaders to take the fate of the region’s peace and security “into their own hands”.
In a keynote address at the opening ceremony of the annual Boao Forum for Asia yesterday, Zhao Leji said international peace and development were facing “serious challenges”.
Zhao urged China’s neighbours to “insist on independence and autonomy, unity and self-reliance … oppose taking sides in bloc confrontation to prevent the region and the world from degenerating into a geopolitical arena of contention”.
While the world faces complex security threats, “we will … take the future destiny of Asia’s long-lasting peace and security into our own hands, so that the flame of peace can be passed on from one generation to the next,” Zhao said, without specifically mentioning the conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza and the Red Sea.
Zhao delivered the speech on the third day of the conference, where former and current officials, business executives and academics discussed Asian financial cooperation, trade, investment, and geopolitics.
Zhao, China’s No 3 leader, also promised more economic cooperation, adding that the door to the country’s markets would “only open wider and never be closed”.
China would continue to reduce its “negative list” of bans or restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, ensure that foreign companies were treated the same way as domestic firms, and make it more convenient for foreigners to work, study and travel in the country, he said.
Zhao met dozens of foreign corporate executives, as well as the forum’s board of directors on Wednesday, highlighting what he said was China’s “series of high quality measures of opening up”.
Leaders from Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Nauru and Cambodia also spoke at the ceremony in Boao, a town in Hainan province.
The forum is a non-governmental international organisation of 29 member states mainly in the Indo-Pacific aimed at promoting economic exchanges, coordination and cooperation in the region and between Asia and other parts of the world.
The opening ceremony has typically been attended by China’s president or premier, but neither Xi Jinping or Li Qiang are attending this year’s event as they hold meetings and host international delegations in Beijing this week.
The forum last year was attended by Li, as well as the leaders of Singapore, Malaysia, Spain, and Ivory Coast.
Xi has scaled back his appearances at top-level meetings, while Li has attended fewer international meetings than his predecessor Li Keqiang.
We will … take the future destiny of Asia’s long-lasting peace and security into our own hands ZHAO LEJI, NATIONAL PEOPLE’S CONGRESS STANDING COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN