China considering 3-year jail term for disrespecting anthem

BEIJING: Disrespecting China’s national anthem could carry a prison sentence of up to three years under a new draft law amendment, which may also affect Hong Kong and Macau, state media reported on Tuesday.

It was unclear if the maximum penalty would apply in the two semi-autonomous southern cities. But any move to punish anthem insults could trigger a backlash in Hong Kong, which enjoys rights and freedoms not seen on the mainland under a “One country, two systems” formula.

Some football fans in the selfgoverning city have booed the Chinese anthem when it was played at matches, despite appeals for restraint.

China has been fine-tuning legislation on the proper way and place to sing its national anthem, recently tightening rules that already bar people from performing it at parties, weddings and funerals.

The country in September passed a National Anthem Law applying to mainland citizens, which specified a much lesser jail term of 15 days for disrespecting the song.

This is currently considered an “administrative punishment” similar to a misdemeanour, Wei Changhao of the National People’s Congress Observer told AFP.

Under the new measures to make the offence a crime, “punishment ranges from removal of political rights and public surveillance to criminal detention and imprisonment of up to three years”, said the state news agency Xinhua.

China’s legislature was this week deliberating the criminal law amendment and mulling whether to apply the existing law in Hong Kong and Macau, it added, without explaining why the penalty could increase so significantly.