China’s top legislature on Saturday announced that it would implement the newly-adopted National Anthem Law in the Macau and Hong Kong SARs.
Effective October 1, the National Anthem Law will be included in Annex III of the Macau Basic Law, which lists national laws to be applied in the region. This is in accordance with the decisions of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at a bi-monthly session, which closed on Saturday.
The NPC Standing Committee may add or delete laws listed in Annex III after consulting the governments and Basic Law committees of both SARs.
A Xinhua report cited Zhang Rongshun, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, as stating that both SARs’ committees and governments agreed that the change is in line with their basic laws.
“In recent years, incidents of disrespecting the national anthem had occurred in Hong Kong, challenging the bottom line of the principle of “one country, two systems” and social morality, and triggering rage among Chinese including most Hong Kong residents,” Zhang said.
“It is urgent and important to apply the National Anthem Law in Hong Kong, in a bid to prevent and handle such offences,” he added.
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