Hong Kong leader John Lee has said that Article 23 – the city’s own security law – would “definitely” be enacted within this year, or next year at the latest.

The chief executive told Hong Kong China News Agency in an interview on Wednesday that he was an “impatient” person but that he also needed to be cautious: “With this legislation, I hope the entire process will consist of careful and thorough considerations, resulting in a successful law,” he said.

Article 23 of the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, stipulates that Hong Kong shall enact its own laws to prohibit seven types of offences: treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the central government, theft of state secrets, foreign bodies’ conducting political activities in the city, and local bodies establishing ties with foreign bodies.

Such laws would be separate from Beijing’s national security law, which was passed in June 2020 after the year-long protests and unrest over a controversial extradition law. The security law, the enactment of which bypassed local legislature, criminalises secession, subversion, foreign collusion and terrorism.

The government has said that a local security law was needed to plug “gaps” in the Beijing-imposed legislation.

Hong Kong security law Article 23 will ‘definitely’ be enacted this year or next, leader John Lee says