Hong Kong’s new leader has pledged to enact an anti-subversion law, tighten up cybersecurity and crack down on false information and crowdfunding activities, after China’s Xi Jinping issued calls to reinforce national security.
In his first policy address since becoming the city’s chief executive in July, John Lee also emphasised the need to “proactively trawl the world for talents” to help alleviate a brain drain, acknowledging that the local workforce had shrunk by about 140,000 in the last two years, after a national security law came to force.
Lee vowed in his government plan for the coming year to press on with a long-shelved proposal to enact an anti-subversion law under article 23 of the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. He said laws would also be introduced to regulate crowdfunding activities, which have drawn mass support for past pro-democracy campaigns, and to step up cybersecurity and target “false information”.
At the same time, Lee said HK$30bn (£3.4bn) would be spent to attract businesses to the city, and a talent pass scheme would be launched to “entice talents to pursue their careers in Hong Kong”.
Analysts say the tightening of ideology will further damage Hong Kong’s civil freedoms and is unlikely to make the city more attractive to business and talent.
Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 after months of pro-democracy protests, outlawing acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.
But the law does not cover the seven offences spelled out in article 23, which include treason, theft of state secrets, foreign political groups conducting political activities in the city, and local bodies establishing ties with foreign counterparts.
In the two years since the implementation of the national security law, police have arrested 186 people on national security charges, police said in June.
Lee’s policy address coincides with the 20th Chinese Communist party congress, which began on Sunday in Beijing. Lee’s emphasis on security issues echoed Xi’s opening speech at the event, which mentioned the word “security” about 50 times while stressing the turbulent domestic and international political situation. The Chinese president also hailed the decision to crack down on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, saying the situation there had turned from “chaos to governance”.
Lee vowed to ensure that only “patriots” who “love the motherland and Hong Kong” would be able to govern Hong Kong. He pledged also to step up patriotic education in nurseries and schools to raise children’s awareness of national security. Teachers in government-run schools are required to pass tests on the Basic Law and the national security law.
Prof Chung Kim-wah, a social scientist formerly with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said measures such as those tightening cybersecurity and targeting false information were in effect “a euphemism for cracking down on the freedoms of speech, expression and information”.
He said: “When information cannot flow freely, the freedom of speech has been suffocated and the judicial system has been damaged … the basic conditions for talents to use their expertise and for creating opportunities are severely weakened.”
Kenneth Chan, a political scientist at the Baptist University of Hong Kong, said Lee’s policy address was “clearly more ideologically driven than the previous ones when it comes to governance and the city’s prospects under the Xi new era”.
He said: “John Lee is certainly tasked to close in on civil society and the alleged ‘foreign elements’ operating in Hong Kong. Those new regulations on crowdfunding and fake news will be regarded as putting national security above freedoms by many in Hong Kong.”
