RFA
Hong Kong on Tuesday revealed details of fresh national security legislation aimed at wiping out “undercurrents” of dissent and support for democracy among the city’s own population, as well as espionage by the CIA and British intelligence services, officials said.
More than 20 years after similar legislation was stalled following mass protests, the government introduced its Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, which will criminalize “treason,” “insurrection,” the theft of “state secrets,” “sabotage” and “external interference,” among other national security offenses.
“While the society as a whole may appear calm and very safe, we still have to watch out for potential sabotage and undercurrents that try to create trouble,” Chief Executive John Lee told a news conference launching a public consultation process on Tuesday.
“Some of the independent Hong Kong ideas are still … embedded in some people’s minds, and some foreign agents may still be active in Hong Kong, and they may be conducting their activities in a deceptive way,” he said.
“Everyone knows that there are Western countries that target our country’s security development and also target China for personal political reasons,” Lee said, adding that “foreign agents and Hong Kong independence are still lurking in Hong Kong.”
While the city is still in the throes of a crackdown on dissent sparked by the imposition of Beijing’s National Security Law in 2020, it has a duty under its own Basic Law to enact its own national security legislation, which has been shelved since 2003.
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