Update | Hong Kong should make its own national security law rather than implement Beijing's, scholar says
Recent suggestions by a local deputy to the national legislature to apply the mainland's national security law to Hong Kong stem from a lack of progress in enacting such legislation in the city since the handover, a leading mainland academic on Hong Kong affairs said on Thursday.
Professor Jiang Shigong, deputy director of Peking University's Centre for Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said it would be better for the city to enact its own national security legislation.
He made his comments after National People's Congress deputy Stanley Ng Chau-pei urged pan-democrats to consider how to enact Hong Kong's own national security law if they thought it would be "the lesser of two evils", compared to applying the mainland's national law.
Jiang told the there should be room for discussion on which method was better. "It's a matter of political judgment," he said.
"Under 'one country, two systems', it would be better for Hong Kong to enact the law on its own," he said. "A lot of issues would need to be resolved if mainland laws are introduced into Hong Kong, given the different legal systems in the two places."
Jiang said the central government had attached more importance to national security in Hong Kong since the Occupy protests.
Ng sparked controversy last week by suggesting the mainland's tough security laws should be applied to the city in the wake of Occupy protests.
He renewed his call yesterday, despite the idea's lack of popularity locally, even in the pro-Beijing camp.
Article 23 of the Basic Law requires the Hong Kong government to draw up its own national security law prohibiting acts of "treason, secession, sedition, or subversion".
The government suspended the bill in 2003 after half a million people took to the streets to protest against the legislation which they said was an attempt to curb their rights and freedom.
"I note that the Hong Kong government does not have a timetable [to enact its own national security law]. Should we wait until 2047 to have it?" Ng said on RTHK radio show .
Ng, who is also the chairman of the pro-establishment Federation of Trade Unions, said he had decided to find another way to bring national security laws to Hong Kong as it would be tough now for the government to implement Article 23.
"People have been worrying about the umbrella revolution … and the [discussion of] the independence of Hong Kong," he said.
Ng denied he intended to cast Article 23 as "the lesser of two evils" by raising such a controversial suggestion.
"If [pan-democrats] are really afraid of the idea [of the mainland law], perhaps they should think about how Article 23 could be legislated concretely," he said.
Ng said he would try to table a motion to the national legislature during its annual meeting in March, calling for the mainland's national security law to be applied to Hong Kong.
Basic Committee vice-chairwoman Elsie Leung Oi-sie said on Wednesday that there was no need for Beijing to impose the mainland's new national security law on Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, a former law dean of the University of Hong Kong said any move to incorporate the mainland’s national security laws into the city would be “unconstitutional”.
“It is inappropriate to place mainland Chinese laws into Hong Kong’s system. A lot of problems will be generated,” Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun told Commercial Radio on Friday.
Chan said uncertainties could arise as to whether local courts have the jurisdiction to try those cases and whether they have the right to interpret the laws applied from the mainland.
He called on Beijing to respect the Basic Law, which is “also part of the national laws”.
