Draft national security law triggers local concerns

A Chinese flag flies in front of a construction site in the Zhujiang New Town district of Guangzhou, China

Macau’s inclusion in the country’s proposed legislation on national security has triggered concerns over potential limits on freedoms enjoyed in the Special Administrative Regions.
While some see the new draft law as a political statement more than a formal implementation, some believe it is an important piece of mainland legislation affecting the rights of people in the SARs, and worry it implies a set of stringent regulations for the region’s stability.
The bill’s latest draft outlines a broad scope of national security concerns covering sovereignty, politics, economy, technology, culture, ecology and the military, outlining the SARs’ as well as Taiwan’s duties for the first time.
Among a total of 82 articles, Macau and Hong Kong are both mentioned twice. Article 11 states that “Safeguarding China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is the common obligation of all Chinese people, including compatriots in Hong Kong and Macau as well as Taiwan,” whereas Article 36 further mandates “the Hong Kong SAR and the Macau SAR should fulfill responsibilities to safeguard national security.”
These responsibilities mean that various areas of national interest – including not only sovereignty and territorial integrity, national unification, political regime, but also the sustainable and healthy development of the economy and society, the security of the financial system, food, energy, nuclear, as well as protection of ecology – should be relatively free from danger and not under internal or external threats.
Moreover, the law stresses socialist core values’ dominance in the field of ideology and prevention of unhealthy cultural infiltration. It also calls for national sovereignty in cyberspace, including the prevention of cyber-attacks, cyber-theft and spread of harmful information.
The draft law was published on the National People’s Congress (NPC)’s official website for a month-long public consultation that concluded last Friday. In an opinion submitted to the NPC, the Macau Journalists Association alleges that some of the definitions in the draft law are inconsistent with the SAR’s local laws and social conditions, such as “unhealthy culture” and “national sovereignty in cyberspace.”
The group advocates that the proposed legislation should not add “additional legal obligations” to Macau, as the “‘One Country, Two Systems’ crucial principle is safeguarding Macau’s existing legal system to remain unchanged.”
The existing law was enacted to prohibit acts of treason, secession, sedition, subversion, theft of state secrets, and acts by foreign and local political organizations deemed to endanger state security. The journalists’ association said it is concerned whether the new National Security Law will be extended to the MSAR as an annex to be attached to the Basic Law, or that the local law for national security will request a corresponding amendment.
“The authorities can already play an adequate role in the maintenance of stability without citing the [No. 2/2009] law, we really cannot see any necessity to revise the law and move the more stringent regulations to the MSAR,” it stated, adding that, “if the law has to be revised, clauses protecting human rights, press and speech freedoms must be added to ensure journalists won’t inadvertently breach the law when fulfilling their duties.”
Drawing on how the proposed National Security Law will be implemented as it “merely lays down the general principles of national security,” John Chan, a founding member of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, commented in the South China Morning Post that, “there must be sufficient safeguards against a wrong judgment, if not abused by government officials, when applying the law.”
Chan suggests the need for “sufficient checks and balances in place to ensure that mainland officials cannot arbitrarily raise the seriousness of a petty crime – if it were committed by someone the authorities did not like – to the level of endangering national security.”