My Take | Careful consideration should be given to feedback on security laws
- Sufficient safeguards are needed in the legislation to ensure rights are protected and conduct essential to Hong Kong’s way of life continues
The public consultation on Hong Kong’s new national security laws has ended but feels as if it has only just begun.
Only 30 days were allowed for consideration of the complex proposals. Now, we wait to see what will be in the bill.
The Security Bureau said 13,147 submissions were received and almost 99 per cent were positive. The last consultation, which ran for three months in 2002, saw more than 90,000 responses, with the majority also said to be supportive.
That process was shelved the following year after a protest by half a million people. This time, the political environment is very different.
The consultation comes at a critical time as Hong Kong seeks to burnish its credentials as an international city.
National security has been a dominant theme since Beijing’s passing of a sweeping law in 2020, in response to months of civil unrest.