On 28 May, China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC), authorised its standing committee to pass a ‘National Security Law’ for Hong Kong. The move comes after a decision on the same was taken last week, and purports to “establish and improve the legal system and enforcement mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to safeguard national security”.It empowers Beijing to directly insert national security legislation into Hong Kong’s Basic Law which is a mini-constitution of sorts. While the stated aim of this new legal framework is to prohibit activities of “secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference”, it is likely to be used to stifle political activity and criminalise dissent in Hong Kong like never before, severely undermining the much-touted “One Country Two Systems” principle.To be sure, it is required by Article 23 of Hong Kong’s Basic Law that the local administration there passes the national security law. However, over the years, successive governments deferred this, following a botched attempt in 2003 that had triggered widespread demonstrations in Hong Kong. So Beijing is now using Article 18 that allows it to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature, in order to directly introduce the national security legislation —although such a procedure would violate Articles 12 and 22 of the Basic Law.To fully understand the motivations, as well as the likely implications, it is important to situate the latest move in the context of the wider attempts to erode Hong Kong’s autonomy and cruel suppression of the democratic way of life in the city.
