The News
The Hong Kong government revealed a full draft of its new security law Friday, which would see tougher punishments — including possible life imprisonment — for those convicted of crimes including “treason” and cooperating with “external forces.”
The law, seen as an expansion of Beijing’s crackdown on political dissent in the semi-autonomous region, also targets offenses such as insurrection, espionage, and the stealing of state secrets — which Chinese officials deem as loopholes in Hong Kong’s existing national security law.
The government last attempted to pass the bill — also known as Article 23 — more than two decades ago, sparking huge protests that forced the city’s leaders to shelve the legislation.
Now, with almost all of Hong Kong’s opposition lawmakers behind bars or self-exiled, the legislation is expected to easily pass through parliament in the next few weeks.
The U.S. State Department said last month that the law undermines the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ framework — a governance formula put in place after the city’s handover to Beijing in 1997, which guarantees special rights and freedoms to Hong Kong citizens.
“We are particularly concerned by Hong Kong authorities’ proposal to adopt broad and vague definitions of ‘state secrets’ and ‘external interference’ that could be used to eliminate dissent through the fear of arrest and detention,” the State Department said.
SIGNALS
Speedy push to pass law suggests little regard for public opposition
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive John Lee has encouraged lawmakers to debate the draft legislation with “full speed,” following a month-long public consultation” on the broad details of the law — an unusually rapid pace for legislation to be advanced. The government said the public consultation received 98% positive feedback, less than 1% negative feedback, and objections from what they claim to be from fugitives or “overseas anti-China organizations,” The Guardian reported.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association has voiced concerns about the law, while the Bar Association of Hong Kong has recommended amending the language around sedition, narrowing of the scope of the offense, The New York Times reported.
But the speed at which the government is attempting to enact the law suggests it “did not really plan to seriously engage with public submissions,” Thomas Kellogg, the executive director of the Georgetown Center for Asian Law told The New York Times, saying the law will have “far-reaching impacts on human rights and the rule of law in Hong Kong.” The government was “likely going to execute on their planned legislation from the get-go,” he added.
Lawyers say tougher provisions in the bill will worry foreign firms
Legal experts who reviewed the draft legislation told Reuters that some of the listed offenses were similar to ones in Western countries, though provisions for others including sedition and the “sharing of state secrets” are broad and possibly harsher.
The law may also pose a threat to the city’s status as a hub for international firms. “The business community is going to be unhappy unless there are guard rails protecting individual rights,” Andrew Collier of due diligence firm Orient Capital Research told Reuters. A law professor at the University of Hong Kong told the news agency that the law may be worrying to businesses and groups aligned with foreign governments, who could fear they may “fall under the radar as an ‘external force.’”