Senior Beijing official lays out China’s view on national security risks to the nation
- The country faces traditional threats but also risks arising from finance and cybersecurity, explains Zhang Yong
- The leadership is enforcing a security law on Hong Kong because the city has failed to address the issue since the handover, he says
A senior Beijing official offered the central government’s clearest definition yet on national security on Monday, saying that rather than focusing only on traditional and territorial threats, China must also manage risks in areas ranging from finance to internet and nuclear security.
Speaking in a webinar, Zhang Yong, vice-chairman of the Basic Law Committee under the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, also criticised the Hong Kong government for failing to make progress on enacting national security legislation since the city was returned from British rule 23 years ago, making it necessary for Beijing to take action.
The NPC passed a resolution on May 28 authorising its standing committee to impose the law on Hong Kong outlawing secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and foreign interference in the city. The new legislation could be ready as early as this month.
“As a local government, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has the obligation to fulfil [Article 23 of Basic Law],” Zhang said. “But 23 years have passed. What is it now like in respect to national security? The legal framework is still blank.”
A bill under Article 23 of the city’s mini-constitution was shelved in 2003 after an estimated half a million people took to the streets in opposition, fearing civil liberties would be curbed.
Article 23 only covered part of the government’s security requirements, according to Zhang. “It’s far from sufficient in covering [other aspects of] national security legislation,” he said. “The article is also not a provision on delegation of power, but a provision on obligation.”
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Hong Kong’s national security law is like ‘anti-virus software’, top Beijing official says
Zhang also said Hong Kong’s Crimes Ordinance, which covered some aspects of national security such as treason and sedition, had not yet been updated to reflect the change of sovereignty. He noted the ordinance still defined treason as causing bodily harm, or levying war, against “Her Majesty”.
Referring to separatists’ call for Hong Kong’s independence, he said: “When such a new issue and new risk concerning national security arose, there was no way the central government would take it lightly. Otherwise, the central government would have been derelict in its duty.”
Zhang classified national security risks as “traditional” and “non-traditional”.
“[The former] is easy to understand. It is political security, including government, territorial and military security,” he said. “Non-traditional security concerns the risks to national security in this new era. Financial security is too important … Biological security is something we can all understand, while there is also cybersecurity and nuclear security.”
Mainland China would enact laws to cover those unconventional areas, he said.
The new legislation for Hong Kong will be promulgated under Article 18 which allows for national laws relating to defence and foreign affairs, “as well as other matters outside the limits of the autonomy” of the city, to be applied through insertion into Annex III or local legislation.
Zhang noted that the article also permitted the central government to apply national laws if the standing committee declared Hong Kong was in a state of emergency.
But Beijing chose to use Annex III to show respect for the “one country, two systems” principle, he said.
Referring to China’s National Security Law, Zhang said: “We can simply install the national security law into Annex III of the Basic Law to implement it in Hong Kong. We can also … issue a directive to the chief executive to ask him or her to make national security laws.”
Additional reporting by Tony Cheung
