Asia-Pacific

New Hong Kong security legislation would carry draconian penalties

Definition of sedition and state secrets could expand, putting journalists and workers in financial services at risk of prosecution for espionage

President of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen speaks during a press conference about the national domestic security Bill. Photograph: Leung Man Hei/EPA

Denis Staunton in Beijing
Fri Mar 8 2024 - 17:33

National security offences would carry tough penalties up to life imprisonment under new legislation published by Hong Kong’s government on Friday. The new law would expand the definition of sedition and state secrets, potentially putting journalists and workers in financial services at risk of prosecution for espionage.

The Bill includes 39 offences of treason, sedition, insurrection, incitement to mutiny and disaffection, sabotage, external interference, theft of state secrets and espionage. The offences that would carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment that include colluding with external forces to damage public infrastructure.

Legislators cleared the first and second readings of the national security Bill within hours of its publication and it is expected to become law by the middle of next month. The new Bill would supplement the national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in 2020 following the crushing of pro-democracy protests.

In the four years since then, most political opposition in Hong Kong has been snuffed out, with pro-democracy candidates blocked from participating in elections. Much of the independent media has closed down and those that survive are small, poorly resourced and heavily constrained in the scope of their reporting.

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State secrets are defined in the draft bill as including “a secret concerning the economic and social development” and “the technological development or scientific technology” of China and Hong Kong. Acquiring such information would be an offence carrying up to five years in prison if there were reasonable grounds to believe it to be a state secret.

The draft Bill includes a public interest defence but the burden of proof would be on the defendant to show that the need to reveal the information manifestly outweighs the interest of not disclosing it. Journalists fear that reporting information disclosed confidentially by people working in government could expose them to prosecution under the legislation.

The draft Bill includes new powers for police to refuse permission for suspects to speak to a lawyer for the first 48 hours after they are arrested. And a court could block someone “reasonably suspected” of committing a national security offence from meeting specific lawyers.

Acts conducted in collusion with external forces would carry heavier penalties and the draft Bill’s definition of such forces includes international organisations and foreign political organisations as well as foreign governments. The European Union said the proposed legislation was harsher and more sweeping than expected.

“The legislation risks exacerbating the erosion of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong brought about, in particular, by the 2020 National Security Law,” it said.

Britain, which ruled Hong Kong as a colony until 1997, also criticised the draft Bill, warning that it could inhibit freedom of speech and hamper the work of international organisations. Foreign secretary David Cameron also expressed concern about the absence of independent oversight or mechanisms to safeguard against arbitrary action by the authorities on national security grounds.

“I strongly urge the Hong Kong SAR government to reconsider their proposals and engage in genuine and meaningful consultation with the people of Hong Kong,” he said.

Denis Staunton

Denis Staunton

Denis Staunton is China Correspondent of The Irish Times

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