HONG KONG, March 19, 2024 (AFP) – Hong Kong legislators unanimously passed a new national security law on Tuesday, introducing penalties such as life imprisonment for crimes related to treason and insurrection, and up to 20 years’ jail for the theft of state secrets.
The law, which the United States, Britain and the European Union have warned could further curtail freedoms in Hong Kong, was fast-tracked through the legislative process.
“Today is a historic moment for Hong Kong,” city leader John Lee said after the vote, adding the law would come into effect Saturday.
The government’s previous attempt to introduce Article 23 — as it is commonly referred to — was in 2003, but it was dropped after half a million Hong Kongers took to the streets in protest.
Lee had repeatedly cited Hong Kong’s “constitutional responsibility” to create it as required by the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution since its handover from Britain to China in 1997.
The homegrown legislation will work in tandem with the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 following huge and at times violent democracy protests.
The new law punishes dozens of new and revamped offences under five categories: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage endangering national security, and external interference.
Lee had said the law was needed to plug the legislative gaps left by Beijing’s version — which targets secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
The law “will allow Hong Kong to effectively prevent, prohibit and punish espionage activities, plots and traps set up by foreign intelligence units, infiltration and sabotage carried out by hostile forces,” Lee said Tuesday.
He added that it would also “effectively prevent black-clad violence and color revolution”, a reference to the democracy protests that kicked off in 2019.
One of the last-minute amendments added last week by the government empowers Lee and his cabinet to create new offences — to account for “unforeseen circumstances” — punishable by up to seven years in prison.
– ‘An effective lock’ –
Sanctioned by the United States for his oversight of the crackdown on the protests while security chief, Lee has called the law “an effective lock to prevent burglars” as authorities seek to combat “threats posed by external forces and local terrorism”.
Penalties run up to life in prison for sabotage endangering national security, treason and insurrection, 20 years for espionage and sabotage, and 14 years for external interference.
It has also expanded the British colonial-era offence of “sedition” to include inciting hatred against China’s Communist leadership, with an aggravated sentence up to 10 years in jail.
As with its 2020 predecessor,the new law claims jurisdiction over some offences committed outside of Hong Kong.
But the Beijing-run national security office in Hong Kong said “only an extremely small number of people” will be punished under Article 23, mirroring language used in the run-up to the original security law’s imposition.
Nearly 300 people have so far been arrested under that law, while dozens of politicians, activists and other public figures have been jailed or forced into exile.
Calling it “a new Great Wall of rule of law”, the security office said in a statement Tuesday that “the majority of Hong Kong residents and international investors will benefit” from it.
As part of the 1997 handover from Britain, Hong Kong was guaranteed certain freedoms — as well as judicial and legislative autonomy — for 50 years in a deal known as “One country, two systems”.
This has helped cement the city’s status as a world-class business hub, bolstered by a reliable judiciary and political freedoms distinct from the mainland.
Britain’s foreign minister David Cameron had urged the government to “reconsider” the law, while the United States had said it “risks compounding the 2020 National Security Law that has curtailed the rights and freedoms of people in Hong Kong”.
