Hong Kong adopts vast security laws, bowing to Beijing
Political crimes could mean life imprisonment
HONG KONG — Hong Kong on Tuesday passed national security laws at the behest of Beijing, thwarting decades of public resistance in a move that critics say will strike a lasting blow to the partial autonomy the city had been promised by China.
The legislation, which was passed with extraordinary speed, grants the authorities even more powers to crack down on opposition to Beijing and the Hong Kong government, establishing penalties — including life imprisonment — for political crimes such as treason and insurrection, which are vaguely defined. It also targets offenses such as “external interference” and the theft of state secrets, creating potential risks for multinational companies and international groups operating in the Asian financial center.
Analysts say the legislation, which will take effect Saturday, could have a chilling effect on a wide range of people, including entrepreneurs, civil servants, lawyers, diplomats, journalists, and academics, raising questions about Hong Kong’s status as an international city.
An earlier attempt to pass such legislation, in 2003, set off mass protests involving hundreds of thousands of people.
But this time many of the opposition figures who might have challenged the legislation have either been jailed or have gone into exile since China’s ruling Communist Party, under Xi Jinping, its most powerful leader in decades, imposed the first national security law, in 2020. That law gave the authorities a powerful tool to quash dissent after months of antigovernment demonstrations engulfed the city in 2019.
Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leader, John Lee, has said the package of new laws is needed to root out unrest and to fight what he described as Western spying. Once the laws are passed, he has said, the government can focus on the economy.
As the bill was passed unanimously Tuesday, lawmakers and officials called it a “historic moment.”
Lawmakers had put the legislation on the fast track, holding marathon sessions over a week and working through a weekend.
“A rapid passage is meant to show people in Hong Kong the government’s resolve and ability to enforce it,” said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London. “The new national security bill is as much about intimidation as it is about enforcement.”
For Lee, “the first concern is not how people in Hong Kong or in the rest of the world see this,” Tsang said. “He is performing for the audience of one — Xi himself.”
And in the eyes of Beijing, these laws are long overdue.
When Hong Kong, a former British colony, was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it was given a mini-constitution designed to protect civil liberties unknown in mainland China, such as freedom of expression, assembly, and the media. But China also insisted on a provision called Article 23, which required Hong Kong to draft a package of internal security laws to replace colonial-era sedition laws.
Hong Kong’s 2003 effort to pass internal security legislation not only triggered large protests, top officials also resigned, and in the years that followed, city leaders were reluctant to raise the matter again, for fear of public backlash.
But in recent months, the Chinese Communist Party again urged the Hong Kong government to enact Article 23 laws.
There was little chance that China’s will would not be heeded: Hong Kong’s legislature has been overwhelmingly stacked with pro-Beijing lawmakers since China overhauled the electoral system to exclude candidates who aren’t considered “patriots.”