No need for Hong Kong to adopt national security law, says justice secretary Rimsky Yuen

The justice secretary says there is "no need" to introduce the mainland bill on national security to Hong Kong, as the Basic Law lays down more specific obligations for the city.

Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said there was legally no reason to forgo Article 23 of the mini-constitution in devising a local version of national security laws that have remained off the statute book after legislation work halted amid mass protests 12 years ago.

Yuen also called on pan-democratic lawmakers to vote on the universal suffrage proposal with an eye on social well-being, not their electoral prospects. The government will table a resolution on the 2017 chief executive election next week.

Under one person one vote, a candidate's approach to the thorny issue of Article 23 could be tested during elections, he said.

"With universal suffrage, the [voters] will ask, 'Will you launch Article 23? What do you think about Article 23?' Then it rests on the people to make a decision," Yuen said. "Because there is already Article 23, I do not think there is any need" to incorporate the national bill, he said.

Beijing's draft last month highlighted Hong Kong's security obligations for the first time, stating it was the "common obligation of all Chinese people, including people in Hong Kong and Macau" to safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and Hong Kong and Macau must fulfil their responsibility to safeguard national security.

It defines "national security" in an all-encompassing manner, ensuring that the political regime, sovereignty, national unification, territorial integrity, people's welfare and the "sustainable and healthy development" of the economy and society, and other unspecified "major national interests" are relatively "free from danger and not under internal and external threats".