New Hong Kong leader John Lee says local national security law will not be rushed so all future risks can be covered

While law will be enacted ‘as soon as possible’, John Lee says his administration wants to spend more time doing legal research

Research will include looking into new and ‘very harsh’ national security measures in an unnamed common law jurisdiction

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Hong Kong’s newly elected leader has said he wants to look at other countries’ national security laws before implementing such legislation locally. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 11:28am, 5 Jul 2022Updated: 7:08pm, 5 Jul 2022

Hong Kong’s newly installed leader on Tuesday said he would prefer not to rush the creation of the city’s own national security law as he wanted to enact legislation that could conclusively address all risks that might arise in the future.

While reiterating he would still enact the bill as soon as possible, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said his administration wanted to spend more time conducting legal research, including looking into new and “very harsh” national security measures in an unnamed common law jurisdiction.

“We will do it as soon as possible … I hope this law, when it is completed, will work and can handle all kinds of problems that we can imagine. I do not want to see any amendments [in the future],” Lee said ahead of his first Executive Council meeting as leader. “Such a serious and careful attitude requires us to do thorough legal research on the issue.”

During his run for the city’s top post, Lee said one of his priorities was to enact legislation required by Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution, that would complement the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020.

On Tuesday, Lee said that while he would like to introduce the local national security legislation “as soon as possible” because of constitutional responsibilities, he also needed to consider “whether the law could really address the most serious national security risks we could imagine”.

It was also worth looking at examples from other countries, which had recently introduced new national security bills, he argued, without mentioning any legislative timetable.