Former Hong Kong Secretary of Justice Elsie Leung has said that any thoughts and actions to overthrow Communist Party leadership would be an act of subversion and therefore illegal under a new Beijing-drafted security law.
In the document released by the central government last week, Hong Kong’s obligation to protect China’s national security has been highlighted for the first time, raising the prospect of the city being pressurised into criminalising acts of “treason, secession, sedition or subversion” under the controversial Article 23.
Article 23 of the Basic Law states that Hong Kong shall enact laws on its own to prohibit acts against the Central People’s Government.
Section 11 of Chapter One of the new draft states that the, “national sovereignty and territorial integrity cannot be separated” and “the compatriots of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan have shared the same duties as all Chinese people to safeguard national sovereignty, unification and territorial integrity”.
When asked whether a local version of the national law would curb dissent against the communist regime, Leung said, “If you really have the thoughts and actions to overthrow the Communist Party’s leadership and its regime, I think it is subversion and illegal.”
Yet she stressed that it takes both a motive and an act to constitute a crime, and said that even Article 23 guarantees human rights, reports the SCMP.
Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen said since it’s only a draft and the legislative procedure is not yet completed, it’s too early to say whether the national security law will apply to Hong Kong, Apple Daily reports.
Leung insisted the Hong Kong government will be consulted if this new security law is to be added to the Annex III of our Basic Law, yet no plans to do so have been confirmed so far.
She added that Hong Kong will likely make its own national security law if that occurs due to various regional differences between Hong Kong and China.
Photo: TVB screengrab
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