NPC deputy Peter Wong Man-kong in new call for for national security law

A local deputy to the National People's Congress is seeking support to revive the call to Beijing to introduce national security legislation in Hong Kong.

It comes after pro-independence activists broke into the People's Liberation Army headquarters in Admiralty late last month, carrying a colonial-era Hong Kong flag and calling on the PLA to "get out" of the city.

The latest call is from Peter Wong Man-kong, a veteran Hong Kong member of the national legislature. Wong submitted a similar proposal to the NPC during the annual plenary session in 2010, but NPC Law Committee chairman Qiao Xiaoyang said it should not be discussed then and it was the business of the Hong Kong government.

"Several years ago I did it on my own because I did not want to bother my colleagues. But now I am considering submitting a proposal again, and this time expanding it to a collective proposal by inviting other deputies to co-sign it," Wong told the Sunday Morning Post.

The move is bound to be controversial. In 2003, the government was forced to shelve proposed national security legislation after it ignited a huge public backlash in the city, with 500,000 people taking to the streets. Years later, it remains a sensitive topic.

Such a bill would fulfil the requirements of Article 23 under the Basic Law, which specifies that the city should enact laws to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition or subversion against the central government.