No foreign countries have criticised Hong Kong’s impending domestic security law, gov’t advisor Regina Ip says
Hong Kong Free Press
Foreign governments have not criticised Hong Kong’s impending domestic national security law, executive councillor and lawmaker Regina Ip has said.
Speaking on a Commercial Radio show on Friday, Ip said the enactment of security legislation under Article 23 had not attracted negative feedback internationally.
“So far, not a single country has issued a statement [since] we published the consultation document,” Ip said in Cantonese, referring to the 110-page paper that authorities released at the end of January as part of a month-long public consultation.
Article 23 of the Basic Law states that Hong Kong must pass domestic laws to criminalise acts that endanger national security. The homegrown law – separate from Beijing’s national security law – is expected to be passed within the year by the Legislative Council, which lost its opposition after the government overhauled election rules and introducing screenings and nomination requirements.
In 2003, when the city first attempted to pass the law, an estimated 500,000 people took to the streets in protest. The government then shelved the bill, and successive administrations have said there was no timetable for it.
Ip, who was the security chief overseeing the law’s push then, said on the radio programme on Friday that the consultation document this time around was more comprehensive. It includes reviews of national security laws in the UK, US, Australia, Canada and Singapore.
“A lot of these countries have been updating their national security laws in the past seven, eight years… some are broader and spicier [than Hong Kong’s],” she said.
Need for legislation ‘accepted’ by public
The homegrown security law is set to cover five types of crime: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage endangering national security, and external interference. Chief Executive John Lee said the new law would effectively combat pro-independence threats and “attacks by foreign forces.”
Opposition to Article 23 locally has been muted, with protests effectively barred under Beijing’s national security law. Lawmakers and business groups have endorsed the law and called it in line with international practices.
Ip said Hong Kong people had “accepted the need for the legislation,” and that the news cycle had moved on to other topics such as the debacle surrounding Argentinian star footballer Lionel Messi’s no-show at a friendly game in Hong Kong earlier this month.
Overseas NGOs including Hong Kong Watch and Amnesty International, however, have expressed their concerns about its potential effect on civil liberties.
Former chief executive Leung Chun-ying said on Friday that the government needed to thoroughly explain Article 23 to international firms and convince them that Hong Kong was a good base from which to enter the mainland Chinese market.
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