Hong Kong’s own national security law ‘essential’ to maintaining Beijing’s trust in city, justice secretary Paul Lam says
- Lam says Beijing-imposed 2020 national security legislation made clear a Hong Kong version was needed ‘the faster, the better’
- He adds questions about the legislation had bothered Hong Kong for two decades and that debate around topic was ‘endless’
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok was speaking on Saturday, a day after he said the government’s delay in passing the legislation was “missing homework” and “an old debt to be repaid”. Such legislation is a requirement spelled out in Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution.
“The idea behind Article 23 is that it bears the central government’s trust in us. Hong Kong people are hoping to strive for the greatest space in ‘one country, two systems’, the premise is that we must get the trust of the central government,” Lam told a seminar on the 33rd anniversary of the promulgation of the Basic Law.
“If the central government gives us something and we do not do it well, we must ask ourselves, ‘how can we successfully fight for their trust?’”
Article 23 requires Hong Kong to enact laws “on its own” to prohibit, among other things, acts of treason against the central government and theft of state secrets, as well as to ban foreign organisations or bodies from carrying out political activities in the city.