Hong Kong’s new security legislation, known colloquially as Article 23, may include new national security offences, according to a consultation document published on Tuesday.
The proposed new crimes were designed to target actions that endangered national security such as electronic attacks and sabotage, Chief Executive John Lee said during a press conference to announce the four-week public consultation period of Article 23 on Tuesday morning.
Article 23 of the Basic Law stipulates that the government shall enact laws on its own to prohibit acts of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against Beijing. Its legislation failed in 2003 following mass protests and it remained taboo until after the onset of the separate, Beijing-imposed security law in 2020. Pro-democracy advocates fear it could have a negative effect on civil liberties but the authorities say there is a constitutional duty to ratify it.
During that failed attempt to legislate Article 23 two decades ago, the consultation period for the draft bill lasted for three months.
Lee said, however, that four weeks was an “appropriate” time for the public to provide feedback this time around, as the consultation paper was thorough, proposing that the new law “be enacted to comprehensively address the national security risks at present and those that may emerge in the future.”
The proposed, homegrown security legislation seeks to cover five types of offences: treason, insurrection, theft of state secrets and espionage, sabotage endangering national security, and external interference.
Most of the offences have been modelled on amendments of existing laws, such as expanding the definition of treason, while a series of new offences have been suggested to deal with acts linked to “serious civil disturbance within China” and “modern-day modes of espionage.”
‘External interference’
According to the consultation paper, the crime of “external interference” targets acts “with intent to bring about an interference effect, collaborating with an external force” to interfere in elections, forming or executing government policies, or any conduct “prejudicing the relationship” between Hong Kong and Beijing.
The document lists examples of external interference as that which has “exceeded the acceptable limit” of “genuine criticisms against government policies, legitimate lobbying work, general policy research, normal exchanges with overseas organisations or day-to-day commercial activities” as “normal international practice.”
It does not elaborate on how “genuine” and “legitimate” may be defined.
When asked by a reporter on Tuesday morning if foreign governments, foreign groups or politicians were to release statements on laws or rulings in Hong Kong they would be in breach of “external interference,” Lee said the government welcomed criticism from anyone as long as they did not intend to harm national security.
“If you don’t have [the intention of] endangering national security, it’s totally fine in Hong Kong for you to express any opinions,” Lee said in Cantonese.
Support for and from ‘intelligence’ groups
Expanding on existing espionage legislation, the consultation document proposes criminalising “participating in or supporting ‘external intelligence organisations’ or receiving advantages from external intelligence organisations.”
Authorities recommended the new offence targeted the act of offering “substantial support” for external intelligence organisations or receiving a “substantial advantage” with the intent of endangering national security.
The consultation document did not provide any examples of what was meant by external intelligence organisations.
‘Sabotage activities’
Authorities recommended introducing an offence targeting “sabotage activities,” which damage or weaken public infrastructure with the intention of harming national security, citing vandalism of transport facilities during the 2019 protests and unrest as an example.
According to the consultation paper, other countries’ security laws meted out penalties of 20 years to life in prison for similar offences.
Cyber attacks and ‘insurrection’
The legislation also proposed introducing an offence “to combat acts endangering national security that are done in relation to a computer or electronic system.”
The document also recommended making “insurrection” an offence. It outlined three types of acts: “joining or being a part of an armed force that is in an armed conflict with” China; acting with intent to “prejudice the situation of the armed forces of China in an armed conflict”; and acting with intent to “endanger the sovereignty, unity or territorial integrity” of China or the “public safety” of Hong Kong.
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