Recently, the Communist Regime in China has been talking about enacting Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law. At the annual Global Times (Huanqiu) meeting, two Hong Kong affairs experts in China stated that it is imperative to enact Article 23.
Wang Zhenmin, former Director of the Legal Department of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), stated, “The common understanding after Hong Kong’s extradition bill is that the national security issue must be included in the agenda; Hong Kong law has already defined five acts endangering national security, and therefore, Article 23 is not ‘empty.’” He also stated that here is a force in Hong Kong that does not want to acknowledge that Hong Kong has already permanently returned to China and intentionally smears China.
Qiang Shigong, a Law Professor at Beijing University, who also attended the meeting, warned against turning the Hong Kong issue into a “Taiwan-style problem.” He claimed that the Hong Kong issue might not be about the conflicts between Capitalism and Socialism, but rather whether Hong Kong should be united with mainland China.
Note: Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law stated that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region “shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People’s Government,or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies in the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.” The Hong Kong government’s attempt to implement the article with a National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill in 2003 caused a great controversy and 500,000 people protested on the streets. Since then, the bill of implementing the article has not been reintroduced.
Source: China News Agency, December 21, 2019
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