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Former government Central Policy Unit head, Lau Siu-kai , says the sooner Article 23 is enacted, the better it would be for Hong Kong. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Former top government adviser’s remarks on Article 23 spark fears over national security law for Hong Kong

Minister moves to ease concerns that Article 23 may be back on agenda in wake of riot after ‘sooner the better’ remark by former adviser

Hong Kong’s security chief has moved to quash concerns that controversial Article 23 national security legislation might be back on the front burner after a former top government adviser said it should be introduced in the wake of the Mong Kok riot.

Speaking in a television interview devoted entirely to last week’s violence, former government Central Policy Unit head, Lau Siu-kai, said the sooner Article 23 is enacted, the better it would be for Hong Kong.

Lau – who is now a senior member of a semi-official mainland think-tank – made the comments a day after Beijing branded the instigators of the riot “separatists”, a classification which appears to place them in the same category as separatists from Tibet and Xinjiang, who are considered a threat to national security.

“On legislating Article 23, in my opinion, the sooner it is done, the better it is. The sooner it is done, the more we can have a legislation that can protect national safety ...”

Lau’s think-tank colleague and prominent mainland academic, Qi Pengfei, told the Sunday Morning Post that the language chosen by Beijing to react to the violence would have been arrived at carefully and could mark a “sea change” in how it would handle Hong Kong’s localists.

Masked rioters in Mong Kok during a clash that began with a dispute over street vendors in the area. Photo: Edward Wong
The intervention of Lau, a vice chairman of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, has prompted fears that a public backlash against the violent events in Mong Kok could be used to fuel a renewed push for the enactment of Article 23 legislation to crack down on pro-independence activists who have grown in number after the Occupy Central movement.

Yesterday, Lau said that although the pro-independence and localism ideologies are not supported by the majority of Hong Kong people, Beijing is concerned they might grow and become a threat to national safety in the future.

“On legislating Article 23, in my opinion, the sooner it is done, the better it is. The sooner it is done, the more we can have a legislation that can protect national safety which also takes into account Hong Kong people’s worries and the special situation Hong Kong is in,” Lau said on a television talk show.

He added that if the article is not enacted, Beijing may “take actions” if it sees any threats to national safety in the city.

Last week, about 100 police officers were hurtwhen a protest against a crackdown on street hawkers escalated into a riot.

Since then more than 60 people, some of them from the localism group Hong Kong Indigenous, have been arrested. Forty people have been charged with taking part in a riot, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok. Photo: SCMP Pictures
Asked if he thinks Beijing was paving the way to legislate Article 23 by classifying the rioters as “separatists”, Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said:“The stance of the current government has always been the same. There have been no changes because of (the riot).”
“It may indicate a significant change of the central government’s attitude on the growth of localists forces in Hong Kong as it notes some localist groups are calling for separation from the mainland.”

When Beijing passed a sweeping new national security law on July 1 last year, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying assured Hongkongers the government had no plans to enact Article 23.

But Leung said the city did have a responsibility to help ensure national security, which it should do by local legislation. The Basic Law requires the government to draw up its own national security law prohibiting acts that include treason, secession, sedition, or subversion.

READ MORE: Beijing signals less tolerant approach in branding instigators of Mong Kok riot as Hong Kong ‘separatists’

Qi Pengfei, director of the Renmin University’s research centre on Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, told the Post the foreign ministry’s wording implied a possible sea-change in how Beijing handled Hong Kong’s localists.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not come up with a terminology lightly. Its statement must be decided after deliberation and discussion among various departments in the central government,” said Qi, fellow vice-chairman of Lau’s think tank.

“It may indicate a significant change of the central government’s attitude on the growth of localists forces in Hong Kong as it notes some localist groups are calling for separation from the mainland.”

It was the first time the terms “local organisation” and “separatist organisation” were used in official statements issued by mainland departments regarding Hong Kong affairs, Qi noted.

READ MORE: A message to Hong Kong’s youth - don’t drag the rest of us down with your violent hatred

Former secretary for security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, whose failed bid to push through the law in 2003 prompted her resignation, and resulted in 500,000 people taking to the streets in peaceful protest, said discussions could start now.

Ip said the old version of the bill was not suitable for today’s Hong Kong.

“It was actually pretty toothless. If you see separatist sentiments translated into violent actions, then secession legislation would be necessary. But how to define and how to punish – that ordinance was very loose and not applicable today,” she said.

Civic Party’s leader Alan Leong Kah-kit and Democratic Party lawmaker Albert Ho Chun-yan feared the fallout of the riot is an orchestrated attempt to push for Article 23.

Lau’s remarks, Leong added, could be evidence that “somebody … is orchestrating in such a way to bring about circumstances that would make way for Article 23 legislation”.

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