Hong Kong legislature to form subcommittee to oversee new updates to Article 23
The decision was made during a Legislative Council (LegCo) meeting on Thursday morning, just two days after Hong Kong enacted the new subsidiary laws under the city's domestic security law, also called Article 23, including the imposition of a maximum jail term of seven years for disclosing investigations by Beijing's national security office.
The government also announced on Tuesday that six sites occupied by Beijing's Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS) in Hong Kong were designated as 'prohibited places' under Article 23.
At the Thursday meeting, which lasted just under seven minutes, House Committee chair Starry Lee quoted a letter from Secretary for Security Chris Tang, referring to 'escalating geopolitical tensions' and risks of national security threats emerging 'all of a sudden.'
Lee, as well as the other lawmakers who presented their views at the Thursday meeting, supported the legislation, saying that there was a pressing need for the legislative work on the two new laws to be completed.
Lawmaker Chan Kin-por recommended setting up a subcommittee in relation to the two pieces of subsidiary national security legislation, suggesting that it comprise the same 15 lawmakers who oversaw the passage of Article 23 last year.
'The two articles are made under the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. In order to maintain continuity, I suggest that the chairperson, deputy chairperson, and members of the Safeguarding National Security Bills Committee be on the subcommittee,' he said.
According to LegCo records, the bills committee was chaired by veteran lawmaker Martin Liao, whom the government previously said had 'facilitated the smooth passage of a number of important bills' in the legislature, including the domestic security law.
Legislator Gary Chan of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong is the deputy chair of the subcommittee. Also on the subcommittee are lawmakers Regina Ip, Tommy Cheung, Stanley Ng, and Holden Chow.
The two subsidiary law changes were enacted on Tuesday under a 'negative vetting' procedure, allowing them to be first published in the gazette before being formally brought to the legislature for scrutiny.
According to the legislation gazetted on Tuesday, anyone who discloses any information related to the measures and investigations by Beijing's Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS) in Hong Kong can face a fine of up to HK$500,000 and imprisonment for up to seven years.
Anyone who provides false or misleading information to the office is also liable to conviction and can be punished with a maximum fine of HK$500,000 and a jail sentence of up to seven years.
Separate to the 2020 Beijing-enacted security law, the homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, and theft of state secrets and espionage.
It allows for pre-charge detention of up to 16 days, suspects' access to lawyers may be restricted, and penalties can involve up to life in prison. Its legislation failed in 2003 following mass protests, and it remained taboo until 2024 when it was fast-tracked at the city's opposition-free legislature.
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