Due to the “present complicated geopolitical situation,” the Hong Kong government has decided the city needs even more national security. New legislation was introduced in the Legislative Council on Tuesday and rapidly enacted on Wednesday. It expands upon Hong Kong’s homegrown “Article 23” national security law (the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance) from last March that targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets, and espionage. All of this adds to the city’s already draconian 2020 National Security Law imposed by Beijing. As the Hong Kong Free Press reported, the new legislation contains a series of measures that expand Beijing’s influence and increase punishment for national security offences, including jail time for merely sharing information about investigations:

The subsidiary laws include designating premises linked to the Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS), Beijing’s national security office in Hong Kong, as “prohibited places” and drawing up related offences, as well as setting up a mechanism allowing mainland China to exercise jurisdiction over national security cases.

[…] According to the legislation gazetted on Tuesday, anyone who discloses any information related to the measures and investigation by the OSNS can face a fine of up to HK$500,000 and imprisonment for up to seven years.

Anyone who provides false or misleading information to the OSNS is also liable to conviction and can be punished with a maximum fine of HK$500,000 and a jail sentence of up to seven years.

[…] The subsidiary legislation stated that any government department or public servant must provide “necessary and reasonable assistance” to the OSNS. [Source]

Chinese jurisdiction over Hong Kong in certain national security cases is based in part on Article 55 of the National Security Law imposed by Beijing, but the new legislation calls for establishing “a mechanism at the local law level” to allow the OSNS to perform the Article 55 mandate “effectively” and further solidify Beijing’s authority. Under Article 55, the OSNS has jurisdiction in circumstances when a case is determined to be a “serious situation” which renders the city government unable to enforce the law effectively or counter a “major and imminent threat to national security,” or if the case is complex due to the involvement of a foreign country. The OSNS can also take over a case at the request of the Hong Kong government. Secretary for Justice Paul Lam claimed, “Human rights and freedom provisions will not be affected in any way by subsidiary legislation.” Six sites used by the OSNS have already been declared as “prohibited places.”

In addition to the Hong Kong government, some citizens are showing their own zeal for national security. A BBC investigation published over the weekend described the story of a 60-year-old Hong Kong pro-China informer named Innes Tang, a prominent self-described patriot who assists the police with surveillance work:

He and his volunteers have taken screen grabs from social media of any activities or comments they believe could be in breach of the [National Security Law].

He also established a hotline for tip-offs from the public and encouraged his online followers to share information on the people around them.

Nearly 100 individuals and organisations have been reported to the authorities by him and his followers, he says.

"Does reporting work? We wouldn’t do it if it didn’t," Mr Tang says. "Many had cases opened by the police… with some resulting in jail terms."

Mr Tang says he hasn’t investigated alleged law breakers himself, but simply reported incidents he thinks warrant scrutiny – describing it as "proper community-police co-operation".

[…] Hong Kong’s authorities have set up their own national security hotline, receiving 890,000 tip-offs from November 2020 to February this year – the city’s security bureau told the BBC. [Source]

The recent national security legislation is just the latest step in an ongoing entrenchment of authoritarian rule in Hong Kong. Last month, the Hong Kong Center for Human Rights published its annual human rights report for 2024, which documented patterns of repression across a variety of domains and the government’s efforts to restrict civil liberties. Here are two key insights from the report’s executive summary:

1. Expansion of the National Security Regime
The enactment of the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance (SNSO) in 2024 has significantly expanded Hong Kong’s national security apparatus. Building on the 2020 National Security Law (NSL), the SNSO empowers the executive to override judicial processes, curtail fair trial guarantees, and assert extraterritorial jurisdiction. The decisions made by the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the HKSAR are explicitly binding and beyond judicial review, and the Chief Executive may issue binding national security certificates at any time.

2. Erosion of Judicial Independence and Access to Justice
The judiciary has been sidelined in national security matters, with executive authorities exerting direct influence over legal outcomes. Restrictions on legal representation, declining approval rates for legal aid, scrutiny of crowdfunding, and the imposition of punitive cost orders have fostered a hostile environment for public interest litigation. High-profile legal reprisals against civil society actors have created a chilling effect on access to justice. [Source]

In other news related to national security in Hong Kong, earlier this month the city’s national security police arrested the father and brother of Anna Kwok, executive director of the U.S.-based Hong Kong Democracy Council and one of 19 overseas activists targeted with a HK$1 million ($127,656) bounty for her arrest. The police allege her family members dealt with her finances, and they could face up to seven years in prison. Elsewhere, four members of the “Hong Kong 47” group of pro-democracy activists jailed for national security offences were released last month. They include Claudia Mo, Kwok Ka-ki, Jeremy Tam, and Gary Fan, who had served sentences of over four years. Most of the rest of the group members are still in prison serving sentences of up to ten years.