SOMEWHERE IN Tung Chee-hwa's office, it has been suggested, lies a secret file containing information that could plunge Hong Kong into the most damaging controversy since the 1997 handover.
It would contain details meticulously prepared by the Security Bureau, the result of years of research into an issue which has been dubbed a 'ticking time bomb', one that could set Hong Kong on a collision course with the mainland and prompt a constitutional crisis.
The research concerns proposals for passing security laws against treason, sedition, subversion and secession, as required by Article 23 of the Basic Law.
For almost five years the Government has delayed bringing in the sensitive laws, which many fear will restrict basic freedoms and be used to crack down on Beijing enemies such as the Falun Gong or supporters of an independent Taiwan. But in recent weeks signs have emerged that the legislation is on its way. The time bomb might be about to explode.
'If you look at all the circumstantial evidence you conclude they are going ahead with it,' Bar Association chairman Alan Leong Kah-kit, SC, said.
The issue was raised in high-level talks in Beijing for the first time in February, when National People's Congress chairman Li Peng met Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie.
Vice-chairman of the NPC's legislative Affairs Commission, Qian Xiaoyang, said at the time: 'Under the Basic Law, the SAR has a duty and responsibility to enact the law . . . It has to do so as soon as possible.'
