Explainer: How 3 years of the national security law transformed Hong Kong – Part II
Hong Kong Free Press
In the three years since the security law was enacted, Hong Kong saw books pulled from library shelves, newsroom raids, democrats behind bars, patriotic education in schools and over 60 civil society groups disappear. The Beijing-drafted legislation aimed to prevent a repeat of the 2019 protests and unrest whilst ushering in a new era of stability and prosperity, but it also prompted criticism from rights NGOs and sanctions from the West.
In the second of a two part series, HKFP explores the many ways that the legislation – which criminalised secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces and terrorism – has reshaped the city since it took effect at 11pm on June 30, 2020. Click here for part 1.
Emigration wave
Since 2020, Hong Kong’s workforce has shrunk amid a wave of departures overseas by around 140,000. The city recorded three straight years of population decline, including its largest-ever mid-year drop in population in 2022, according to official statistics.
There are no official figures on whether departures are permanent and it is difficult to measure the extent of the brain drain. However, more than 144,500 Hongkongers moved to the UK within the first two years of the British National (Overseas) emigration scheme.
Student vacancies at schools and the withdrawal of pension funds have all seen an uptick, and the exodus is being felt across sectors from banking to education.
See also: Explainer: How to measure Hong Kong’s mass exodus
While officials largely put the figures down to a “natural” decrease – Hong Kong has the lowest fertility rate in the world and a rapidly ageing population – the fall has coincided with the implementation of the national security law and stringent Covid restrictions, which put many expatriates off remaining in the city.
To combat the exodus, Lee’s administration has introduced a raft of visa schemes designed to lure talent to the city and plug gaps in construction and transport with imported labour.
Officials sanctioned
A little over a month after the security law came into effect, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 11 officials and former officials from Hong Kong and mainland China “for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy and restricting the freedom of expression or assembly of the citizens of Hong Kong.”
Among those to face sanctions were: then-chief executive Carrie Lam; Lee, who at the time was security chief; outgoing justice minister Teresa Cheng; police chief Chris Tang; Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Eric Tsang; Eric Chan, the director of the chief executive’s office; and Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Xia Baolong.
Four of those under US sanctions were given top roles in the current administration: Lee; Tang, who became security minister; Tsang; and Chan, who was appointed chief secretary for the administration. Xia also remained in his position.
Lee has called the sanctions “an act of bullying,” while his predecessor laughed them off, telling Hong Kong International Business Channel in 2020 that she had “piles of cash at home” because she was unable to hold a bank account after being targeted by US sanctions.
Earlier this year, the US State Department walked back a statement it had released saying that Lee would be invited to attend an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in San Francisco in November, saying an “incorrect” version had earlier been issued.
Number of national security arrests
As of June 23, 259 people had been arrested over “cases involving suspected acts and activities that endanger national security,” a spokesperson from the Security Bureau told HKFP. Of those, 160 people and five companies have been charged so far.
Among them, 80 people have been convicted or are awaiting sentencing, 30 of them specifically for offences under the security law. The Security Bureau spokesperson did not specify the offences committed by the remaining 50 defendants.
100% conviction rate
Speaking on National Security Education day in April, security minister Tang hailed the city’s 100 per cent conviction rate in national security cases. Tang praised the arrests and prosecution work since the law was imposed, saying it had been done “very seriously.”
“All 71 people who have gone through judicial proceedings were convicted. Only a small number of people in Hong Kong were involved,” the former police chief said at the time.
Asked if members of the public had been “overly worried” when the law was first rolled out, Tang said the legislation was “very clear” and it was unlikely that ordinary people would “accidentally breach the law.”
Crime on the rise
Hong Kong’s crime rate has been rising steadily since 2018, when 54,225 crimes were reported, compared to 70,048 last year. Crimes rose again in the first five months of 2023 with 35,863 reported cases, a year-on-year increase of 10,434 compared to the same period last year.
Police have denied putting “too much effort” into safeguarding national security amid the increasing crime rate, saying last year’s lift was driven by a leap in fraud cases.
Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu said in February that enforcing the national security law was “one of the major task[s] of the police force,” calling national security the “most important issue that every place has to look into.”
After the security legislation was implemented in mid-2020, HK$8 billion was earmarked that December for a national security “special fund to meet the expenditure for safeguarding national security.” The following February, finance chief told reporters it would be “enough to last for a few years,” and that it was “inconvenient to discuss further.”
An additional HK$5 billion was allocated to the special fund in the 2022-23 financial year, a document published in May revealed.
Quiet on the streets
The security law was implemented after protests against a controversial plan to allow the transfer of fugitives to jurisdictions with which Hong Kong did not have extradition agreements, including mainland China, where the justice system is notoriously opaque.
While they were largely peaceful at the outset – attracting millions of Hongkongers by some estimates – demonstrations as times turned violent as police and protesters clashed in the streets and on university campuses.
The public protests were largely ended by Covid-19 social distancing measures introduced in early 2020 and, later, by the introduction of Beijing’s security law. However, Hongkongers had a long history of making their grievances heard.
Among the regular fixtures to have disappeared from the city’s calendar since the law came into effect are the candlelight Tiananmen crackdown vigils, which at their peak attracted more than 100,000 people.
Also seemingly consigned to history are the annual marches held on Labour Day on May 1, and July 1, the anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule in 1997. Both served as fundraisers for NGOs and were testament to the city’s vibrant civil society. On July 1 in 2003, more than half a million filled the streets to oppose the enactment of a security law.
The groups behind each of those events have disbanded since 2020 – several of their members have been detained under the security law – and no one has stepped in to organise in their stead. A Labour Day demonstration planned for this May was cancelled by organisers at the last minute without a stated reason. Police said “a lot of people, including some violent groups, said that they would attend the event.”
At one of the first protests against government policy since Covid restrictions were lifted and the security law was implemented, there were no more than 100 attendees who were made to wear numbered tags and, at times, carry their own cordon.
‘From chaos to stability’ and beyond
In March 2022, before he had made his ambitions for the top job publicly known, then-chief secretary Lee gave a speech on the sidelines of an event at the United Nations in Geneva. He discussed “the darkest time of Hong Kong,” when “violent riots” spilled across the city.
“Forces to incite Hong Kong’s independence and foreign interference showed up blatantly,” he claimed.
“Such violence, destruction and chaos was stopped effectively after the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress promulgated the national security law about a year later,” Lee said, adding that it “filled the vacuum in national security.”
“The national security law has restored peace and stability. People returned to their day-to-day life in peace and society resumed normal.”
Since assuming the top job, Lee and his officials have repeatedly touted Hong Kong’s emergence from those “dark” days. In his maiden Policy Address in October 2022, Lee said: “Following our transition from chaos to order, Hong Kong is advancing from stability to prosperity with our constitution order better safeguarded and our governance systems improved.”
In March, China’s new premier Li Qiang said that Hong Kong was poised for “brighter days ahead” after overcoming “temporary challenges.”
Despite this seemingly sunny outlook, Lee has warned that “we must stay alert to threats and dangers.” In April, he said that although the city had largely returned to stability under the security law, a minority of “anti-China and anti-Hong Kong elements” continued to operate underground and were waiting for opportunities to “strike back.”
“Some people have been arrested recently for openly inciting violence online, which indicates that these threats to national security are still lurking in various parts of society,” Lee said.
Hong Kong’s own security law imminent
Every post-Handover administration has been charged with enacting a security law for Hong Kong, as is mandated in Article 23 of the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. Every administration has failed – most spectacularly in 2003, when mass protests led to the resignation of the then-security chief Regina Ip.
However, Lee has vowed to pass the city’s own security law “definitely,” by next year at the latest.
It would ban seven types of offences: treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the central government, theft of state secrets, political activities by foreign bodies in the city, and local bodies establishing ties with foreign bodies.
The government has said it is needed to plug “gaps” in the Beijing-imposed legislation.
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