Beijing should give more details on Hong Kong national security plans, says former Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang
- After a recent party plenum, Beijing called for stronger safeguards of national security
- But former legislature president says leaders will need to elaborate on how they intend to bring them in
Former Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing has said the local and central governments need to figure out and explain their plan for laws protecting national security in Hong Kong, which Communist Party leaders called for last month.
Tsang added that the city was too divided to enact such laws on its own.
His remarks came a day after Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office under the State Council, said Hong Kong urgently needed to enact national security legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law. He said unrest in the city, which has raged for the past five months, had exposed the need for stronger measures against foreign forces using Hong Kong to undermine China.
Zhang made the comments in an article written after Communist Party leaders ended their plenary meeting in Beijing last month with a communique pledging to “establish a sound legal system and enforcement mechanism for safeguarding national security” in Hong Kong and Macau.
On a TVB programme on Sunday, Tsang said Article 23 legislation could only come in under a suitable social atmosphere. The government shelved a national security bill in 2003 after 500,000 people took to the streets to oppose it, fearing it would undermine civil liberties.
“Is the social atmosphere favourable now?” Tsang asked. “Article 23 legislation cannot be done by Beijing asking for it and the chief executive agreeing to do it.”