Hong Kong lawmakers have unanimously approved moving a domestic national security bill to the next stage just 11 hours after authorities presented amendments, such as powers for the city’s leader to draft subsidiary legislation to add new offences.
The head of the bills committee will file a report to the House Committee on Friday, a day after lawmakers expressed support for the 47 areas of changes proposed by the government.
If the House Committee clears the bill at its meeting on Friday, the second reading of the legislation will be able to resume, allowing lawmakers to deliberate the revised version before passing it at a full gathering of the Legislative Council.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
A Legco insider suggested that a special meeting of all members could be called at any time to speed up the process.
Justice chief Paul Lam Ting-kwok on Thursday maintained that the domestic national security legislation would safeguard human rights, praising lawmakers for their “high quality” discussions in the past seven days as he addressed the final meeting of the bills committee.
“Not only must we submit an assignment as soon as possible that has been overdue for almost 27 years, but the assignment must also be high-quality work that is formulated in strict accordance with the legislative process. The work of the bill committee has indeed achieved this,” Lam said.
The amendments cleared by lawmakers on Thursday ranged from small fixes such as spelling errors and incorrect word choice to the change of the title of an offence and new clauses, with many amendments effectively making the bill tougher than its original draft.
One of the amendments includes a clause that empowers the chief executive in council – the city leader acting after consulting the key decision-making Executive Council – to make subsidiary legislation “for the needs of” safeguarding national security.
New offences under such subsidiary legislation could result in a maximum penalty of seven years in jail and a HK$500,000 (US$63,910) fine. Under the negative vetting procedure, such legislation can be enacted first and scrutinised by the legislature later.
The government explained that the suggested change was based on lawmakers’ comments during the scrutiny of the bill, so as to “deal with unforeseen circumstances” in the future.
Officials only said these might cover “implementation details” and “administrative regulations” but offered no further details.
Exco convenor and former security minister Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said she welcomed the authorities’ swift acceptance of her suggestion on the topic, but officials rejected her idea of making laws for the codes of practice because these would not affect the public.
Apollonia Liu Lee Ho-kei, deputy permanent secretary for security, also told lawmakers that it was an approach of “transparency” by stipulating the maximum penalty for offences that might be introduced in future through subsidiary legislation.
Radio Free Asia may quit Hong Kong as Article 23 law expected to come into force
The government also proposed that the chief executive in council may, by introducing a subsidiary legislation, specify the class of people as public officers to broaden the scope of “public officers” related to the incitement to disaffection or state secret offences.
The authorities reasoned that “forward-looking” flexibility would allow the city’s leader to include “some” staff members of public organisations who “may have a greater chance to gain access to state secrets” apart from government employees, contractors and judicial officers.
Another amendment included renaming the offence of “external interference” by adding “endangering national security” after it to highlight any crime linked to improper means be separated from “normal international exchanges”, in commerce, academia and culture.
The government also defined “international organisation” as consisting of two or more countries, regions, places, or entities entrusted with a function, up from the previous one.
Earlier in the vetting process, Ip had questioned how an organisation with members from just one “place” could be considered an “international organisation” and thus be deemed an “external force”.
But the government did not revise other definitions under “external force”, including those of “related” individuals and entities, which had also been described as “very broad” by the Exco convenor.
Foreign media outlets, meanwhile, also ran stories and commentaries calling the bill “very vague”, with one saying the city leader could ban companies from operating in the city if they were found to be “working for foreign forces”, prompting the security minister to hit back.
Under the latest changes, a suspect can be labelled an absconder immediately after a court warrant is issued after a six-month wait requirement was removed. The change was made after lawmakers said the security chief should be given maximum flexibility to deal with absconders.
While a new criminal waiver was introduced for business partners and tenants who had signed contracts with absconders before the latter were specified, officials stressed at the meeting on Thursday that the former would remain banned from making payments to absconders under the new law.
In addition to two fixes that involved incorrect or omission of cross-references to other clauses, there were also seven corrections of typos in the English version, one of which drew a rare challenge from both Ip and the Legco legal adviser at the otherwise smooth Thursday meeting.
Hong Kong’s Article 23 bill could be law just days after review of clauses ends
Legislators at the committee have not moved any amendments for the security bill.
The amendments were submitted hours after lawmakers finished a review of its 181 clauses in a series of marathon meetings.
Lawmakers started scrutinising the national security bill once it was gazetted last Friday and bills committee chairman Martin Liao Cheung-kong said over 1,000 questions had been asked in more than 40 hours of meetings.
The domestic national security legislation is designed to target five types of offences: treason; insurrection; theft of state secrets and espionage; sabotage endangering national security; and external interference.
It is mandated under Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, and will complement the 2020 Beijing-imposed national security law.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Hong Kong’s Article 23 bill: clause-by-clause deliberations end on day 6 with series of amendments to existing laws examined
- Hong Kong’s Article 23 bill: legislation could be passed within days after lawmakers finish marathon clause-by-clause review
- US ambassador to China makes rare 2-day visit to Hong Kong amid efforts by city’s lawmakers to fast-track Article 23 bill
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2024.
