Hong government announces consultation on legislation for the Article 23 national security laws
Hong Kong’s government announced a public consultation period for a new national security law on Tuesday.
The laws would be classified into five broad offences: treason, insurrection, espionage, destructive activities endangering national security, and external interference, the authority said.
It was added that separate chapters of the consultation document would also cover issues around the definition of theft of state secrets and the “extraterritorial effect” of the law.
The government says to the residents that it has a constitutional responsibility to strengthen legal mechanisms in response to “foreign agents and Hong Kong independence advocates … still lurking in our society”.
Hong Kong leader, John Lee, said the law which is known as Article 23, would be added to Hong Kong’s mini-constitution and work in unity with the existing national security law, imposed by China’s central government in 2020 but the latter would prevail.
Mr Lee said the consultation will be open to foreign chambers of commerce.
The press conference announcing the consultation heavily emphasised the government’s “constitutional responsibility” to introduce Article 23, as well as its claims that new laws were urgently needed to safeguard national security in Hong Kong. Lee reiterated that other nations had their national security laws, which Hong Kong had considered in designing its own.
Mr Lee said that the new law would respect human rights and freedoms – including freedoms of assembly, press, and speech. He added that most freedoms and rights were “not absolute”, and the 2019 protests “showed that without national security we cannot enjoy our rights or freedoms”.
The consultation document would be released on Tuesday, Lee told the media. And the public feedback for the law will be open until 28 February, he added.
香港23條：當局解釋新國安法並公佈公眾諮詢期
香港政府週二宣布對新的國家安全法進行公眾諮詢。
這些法律將分為五種廣泛的罪行：叛國罪、叛亂罪、間諜罪、
當局表示，危害國家安全的破壞性活動以及外部干涉。
諮詢文件的單獨章節也涵蓋了竊取國家機密的定義和法律的「域外效力」的問題。
政府表示，憲法有責任加強法律機制，以應對「仍然潛伏在我們社會的外國代理人和香港獨立倡導者」。
香港特首李家超表示，這項被稱為第 23 條的法律將被添加到香港的小憲法中，並與中國中央政府於 2020 年實施的現行國家安全法相一致，但以後者為準。
李先生表示，諮詢將向外國商會開放。
宣布磋商的新聞發布會強調了政府引入第23條的“憲法責任”，並聲稱迫切需要製定新的法律來維護香港的國家安全。 李重申，其他國家都有自己的國家安全法，香港在設計自己的國家安全法時也考慮過這些法律。
李先生表示，新法將尊重人權和自由，包括集會、新聞和言論自由。 他補充說，大多數自由和權利“不是絕對的”，2019年的抗議活動“表明，沒有國家安全，我們就無法享受我們的權利或自由”。
李告訴媒體，諮詢文件將於週二發布。 他補充說，公眾對該法律的反饋將持續到 2 月 28 日。
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