Plan to enact city’s own security law this year put on hold
A plan to enact Hong Kong’s own national security law this year has been put on the back burner by the government in a move supported by pro-establishment politicians who say more urgent issues need to be tackled.
The legislation, required by Article 23 of the Basic Law, would complement the national security law imposed on the city by Beijing in 2020.
But according to the updated Legislative Council programme seen by lawmakers last week, the government plans to introduce 16 pieces of legislation by December but the national security law was among 15 others removed from the schedule.
Legislator Junius Ho Kwan-yiu said he was disappointed the legislation had been postponed.
Gary Chan Hak-kan, the chairman of Legco’s security panel, hoped the government could submit the bill as soon as possible because the existing national security law was “incomplete”.
Although Beijing imposed the security law to target secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, it did not cover all seven offences spelled out in Article 23, such as treason, theft of state secrets and foreign political bodies engaging in political activities in the city.
“Many lawmakers hope that the government can do this soon. We are fully prepared,” said Chan of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong
But New People’s Party lawmaker Lai Tung-kwok, a former security and immigration chief, said it was better for the government to take time than to rush through the bill.
He said that since Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu took office, all ministers had been busy delivering on new policies in the first 100 days, and now all eyes were on Lee’s maiden policy address on October 19.
He added that there was not enough time for the legislature to complete the 16 bills that remained on the order paper at the meetings before December.
Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole delegate to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, agreed. “When the international situation is so complicated, it’s more important for us to think carefully and handle other more urgent issues. We already have a national security law imposed in 2020, we need to wait for the right time to enact this new one.”
A Beijing loyalist politician, who asked not to be named, said: “The government is expecting more instruction from Beijing after the 20th party congress in Beijing later this month.”
The legislation was put on hold after John Lee said in July he preferred not to rush the drafting of the contentious law as he wanted it to be comprehensive.
The government, under Lee’s predecessor Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, wrote to Legco’s House Committee in January, saying various bureaus intended to submit up to 37 bills by December, including the Safeguarding National Security Bill in the latter half of the year.
Lee said during his run for the city’s top post that one of his priorities was to enact the Article 23 legislation.
But he later revealed his administration wanted to spend more time conducting legal research so the new law be able to handle “all kinds of problems” without the need for amendments.