Hong Kong national security laws need constant improvement to close loopholes, ex-Beijing official says

Hong Kong's national security laws must undergo constant refinement to close any emerging loopholes, according to Wang Zhenmin, a former top official overseeing Beijing's affairs in the city. He emphasized that strengthening national security is a long-term, ongoing process for any country, including Hong Kong.

Speaking at a seminar, Wang, who is also vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies, stated that legislative amendments should be introduced promptly whenever new loopholes are identified. He asserted that Hong Kong's national security legislation is among the mildest globally, upholding the rule of law and protecting human rights and freedoms to a high degree.

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Whenever loopholes are found, laws or legislative amendments must be introduced promptly.

This call for improvement comes as Hong Kong has introduced several new provisions over the past year. These include empowering the chief executive to designate any criminal act as a national security offense and mandating that suspects in national security investigations surrender their passwords or face imprisonment. Last year, subsidiary legislation under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, known as Article 23, was enacted, designating sites occupied by Beijing's national security office as prohibited areas and introducing new offenses with maximum seven-year jail terms, such as criminalizing the disclosure of national security investigations.

Wang contrasted Hong Kong's laws with those in the US, UK, and Singapore, suggesting that other nations are also bolstering their national security measures amid global volatility. Hong Kong's Article 23 legislation, separate from the 2020 Beijing-enacted security law, specifically targets acts like treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets, and espionage. It also permits pre-charge detention for up to 16 days.

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Hong Kong’s national security laws are the world’s mildest, respects the rule of law the most, and protects human rights and freedoms the most out of any national security legislation in the world.