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Hong Kong is fast-tracking a tough new national security law that proposes life imprisonment for treason and increases sentences for crimes such as sedition, fuelling concerns that civil liberties are being eroded as the territory becomes increasingly aligned with mainland China.
The city’s lawmakers are discussing the bill, which was published on Friday at a special meeting of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing legislature. The government has said it hopes to pass the bill this year.
The draft was published just days after a public consultation ended. John Lee, the city’s leader, has called on lawmakers to approve it at “full speed”, while China’s vice-premier Ding Xuexiang this week said the city should quickly approve the law.
The Chinese territory has been struggling to repair its global reputation following three years of a stringent zero-Covid policy and Beijing’s political crackdown.
China’s central government introduced a wide-ranging national security law in 2020 in response to pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong the year before. But the city is required to introduce its own security legislation under the Basic Law, the mini-constitution introduced when the territory was handed to China from Britain in 1997.
The proposed legislation — to be implemented under Article 23 of the Basic Law — targets acts of espionage, treason and foreign interference, among other offences.
It includes a maximum penalty of life imprisonment for crimes of treason or insurrection and raises the maximum penalty for sedition to seven years from the current two years.
Those found guilty of the theft of state secrets face a penalty of up to 10 years in prison under the draft law. The definition of state secrets has been broadened to include data on the economic, social, technological or scientific development of Hong Kong or the mainland.
Critics see the law as part of Beijing’s campaign to bring Hong Kong in line with mainland China, which has also tightened its anti-espionage and data laws in recent months as authorities target foreign businesses over sensitive information.
Local officials said almost 99 per cent of the more than 13,000 responses received over a four-week public consultation that ended last month were in support of the legislation.
In the government’s consultation summary document released on Wednesday, some respondents suggested banning encrypted messaging platforms Telegram and Signal and video streaming website YouTube. Officials have said they have “no intention” to ban any social media platforms under the new law.
While top local officials have said they met no opposition from foreign businesses and consulates in the city in closed-door meetings, many western governments and business chambers representatives have expressed concerns over the law’s scope.
The UK government criticised the proposed law as breaching the 1984 Sino-British joint declaration that governed the territory’s handover to China. David Cameron, the UK’s foreign minister, last week urged the Hong Kong government to reconsider the new law.
The US state department warned that the law could be used to “eliminate dissent through the fear of arrest and detention”.
Thomas Gnocchi, head of the EU representative office in Hong Kong, said the EU had raised “significant concerns” with local authorities over the law.
Foreign companies have become increasingly wary of Hong Kong’s political situation. US law firm Latham and Watkins last month cut off its Hong Kong lawyers from the firm’s international databases ahead of the proposed law’s implementation.
“It would be a lie to say western businesses are not worried,” said a Hong Kong-based corporate lawyer at an international firm.
Clients view “Hong Kong as increasingly close to mainland China”, the lawyer said, adding: “Nobody knows how far the law would go, right?”
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