Double is not always double good.
The National Security Law that China imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 should be shredded and incinerated, not doubled. But Le Monde with AFP reports that Hong Kong is now imposing “its own national security law, including five new offenses” (January 30, 2024).
New?
Hong Kong will create its own national security law “as soon as possible”, city leader John Lee said on Tuesday, January 30, adding insurrection and other crimes not covered by existing legislation imposed by Beijing four years ago….
Officials on Tuesday said Hong Kong’s security law—mandated by Article 23 of the city’s mini-constitution—will cover five offenses: treason, insurrection, espionage, destructive activities endangering national security, and external interference.
“While [our] society as a whole looks calm and very safe, we still have to watch out for potential sabotage and undercurrents that try to create troubles, particularly some of the independent Hong Kong ideas that are still embedded in some people’s minds,” Lee told a press conference. “The threats to national security are real, we have experienced them and suffered from them badly…. We don’t want to go through that painful experience again,” he said, adding that “some foreign agents may still be active in Hong Kong”.
The phrase “independent Hong Kong ideas” is ambiguous, but John Lee (shown above) is probably referring to the subversive idea of some Hong Kongers that it would be good to have an independent Hong Kong. He is probably not referring to the subversive tendency of some Hong Kongers to think independently. But these two things are not exactly opposites, and the logic of Lee’s position—his ideological position and his position as magistrate—requires repudiating and punishing both.
If Lee were truly opposed to troublemakers, he would acknowledge that the troublemaking Chinese government has long been the chief threat to the security and freedom of individuals in Hong Kong. He would be remembering with gratitude the times that hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers packed the streets to resist the China-governed Hong Kong government’s post-handover attempts to enact a law to combat fake national security crimes. He would be working to rally Hong Kongers to resist the despotism of the Chinese Communist Party in any way still possible. But he’s not that kind of guy.
The Le Monde/AFP report is misleading. There is no really new National Security Law being enacted in Hong Kong. It’s just a repetition, a going through the motions, a way for the John Lee types misgoverning at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party to show once again that they are really and truly fully on board with the CCP’s determination to crush the spirit of the people of Hong Kong.
Perhaps the 2024 “Hong Kong” version of the 2020 National Security Law includes rationales, crimes, and penalties not stated in so many words in the earlier incarnation of the law. Once the new law is in effect, Hong Kong’s corrupt judges will doubtless cite it reverently and mix and match clauses from the 2020 NSL and the 2024 NSL. But the new law will still be superfluous. Any mere subject in Hong Kong who gives Lee any lip can be arrested and incarcerated right now.
