PJ to set up national security department next week

The Judiciary Police (PJ) will set up a new department on October 12 for safeguarding national security, the government announced yesterday.
According to a dispatch published in the official gazette, the National Security Department will have four divisions: the National Security Information Division, the National Security Crime Investigation Division, the National Security Action Support Division and the National Security Affairs Integrated Service Division.
The new department will be responsible for external communications about national security and promoting the law enforcement.
In addition, the department will participate in the Chief Executive-chaired national security committee office’s policy research and legislation work.
In the national security information work division, personnel will collect and analyze information that could damage national security and stability, and collect and analyze information about national separation, conflicts and extremists.
The national security crime investigation division will be responsible for preventing infiltration, subversion, and espionage in government departments. This division will also monitor and investigate key and sensitive departments and entities, and perform counterintelligence activities against high-risk personnel.
The national security operation support division will provide technical support, training and other support for the department.
The National Security Integrated Services Division will mostly focus on support for legislation and policy issues.
This means that starting next Monday, the PJ will not only have the National Security Department, but it will also have a terrorism advisory and investigation division, and a cybersecurity division.
The bureau will also have more tenured staff and one more position for a Deputy Director. The PJ’s reorganization will take the department’s number of tenured personnel to 1,362, seven more than currently.
On the same day, law No. 36/2020, the PJ’s new special career regime, will also come into effect. This will exempt the PJ from obligations to reveal the identity of recruited investigators, such as those responsible for national security matters.
Some members of the Macau public, including lawmaker Sulu Sou, have nicknamed the exemption of identity disclosure a “secret police” policy. The lawmaker also questioned the Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chak’s claim that national security matters are at stake in Macau and a law must be established to handle these issues.
Wong claimed that national security risks should be prevented before any issues occur. The secretary also noted that Macau has been doing “good work” to prevent national security crimes, which is exactly why Macau should also carry out prevention work.
Wong reiterated that the exemption has been long practiced in other regions including the U.K., the U.S. and Hong Kong.
In 2018, the local government also amended laws in order to ban non-Chinese judges from hearing national security cases. Staff Reporter