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Written by: Huang Yunna
2020-06-20 19:08
Date of last update: 2020-06-20 19:12The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress concluded this afternoon (June 20), during which the "Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Maintenance of National Security (Draft)", commonly known as the "Hong Kong version of the National Security Law", was reviewed. Shen Chunyao made an explanation, mentioning that the SAR government will set up a "National Security Committee" and the central government will set up a "National Security Office in Hong Kong" in Hong Kong. Compared with Macau, which completed the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law on its own in 2009 and established the "National Security Council" in 2018, the members and functions of the "Hong Kong National Security Council" and the "Macao National Security Council" are not complete. Unanimously, the members of the "Hong Kong National Security Council" are more detailed, and a consultant appointed by the central government is added. However, the "Hong Kong National Security Council" is not responsible for coordinating local national security work like the "Macao National Security Council". And accountability, it is more likely to accept the supervision, guidance, and coordination of the "National Security Agency in Hong Kong." The question is why the "Macao National Security Council" can do what Hong Kong can't?
Why is the membership wider?
The "Hong Kong National Security Council" will be chaired by the Chief Executive, whose members include the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Financial Secretary, the Legal Secretary, the Secretary for Security, the Chief of Police, the head of the National Security Department of the Police, the Immigration Department In addition, there is a consultant appointed by the central government to provide advice on how the committee performs its duties. The committee has a secretariat, which is nominated by the chief executive and submitted to the central government to appoint a secretary Long leader. In contrast, the "Macao National Security Council" established in Macao two years ago is composed of local government officials. Not only does it not have a national security adviser appointed by the central government, but the Secretary-General is also chaired by the Chief Executive's Office; in addition to the same Chief Executive as chairman, and by The director of the local security department serves as the deputy chairman. Other members include the director of the administrative law department, the director of the police department, the legal department, the judicial police department, the chief executive's office, the chief executive's office consultant, the security director's office, the security department Advisor to the long office.
It is understood that the "Hong Kong National Security Council" will be chaired by the Chief Executive, whose members include the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Financial Secretary, the Secretary for Justice, the Secretary for Security, the Chief of the Police, the head of the National Security Department of the Police, The Director of the Immigration Department, the Commissioner of Customs and the Director of the Chief Executive’s Office. (Profile picture / Photo by Zhang Haowei)
There are certain differences between Hong Kong and Macao’s government organization structure. For example, under the Chief Executive, Hong Kong is basically headed by the “three divisions” of the thirteen bureaus and its 56 executive departments (including offices/departments). The "Secretary" is also listed as a member of the "Hong Kong National Security Council". However, Macao is under the Chief Executive, the first level is the "Five Divisions", followed by the "Bureaus" and "Departments", of which the "Five Divisions" are the Administrative and Legal Affairs Department, the Economic and Financial Department, the Security Department, the Social Culture Department and Department of Transport and Public Works; It is worth noting that only the Secretary for Administration and Legal Affairs and the Secretary for Security can join the "Macao National Security Council", excluding officials in charge of economics and finances-this is obviously different from Hong Kong, and may be different from the Hong Kong Government’s The financial scale is huge, and as an international financial center, financial security is increasingly becoming an important part of national security.
In addition, the Chief Executive of Macao and the Director of the Security Department will jointly be responsible for the jurisdiction of the General Police Department and the Macau Customs, and the General Police Department will jointly manage the Judicial Police and the Security Police with the Director of the Security Department. The latter covers intelligence collection, residence issues, entry and exit Affairs and other work; in contrast, Hong Kong, although the Security Bureau under the Chief Secretary for Administration already includes the Hong Kong Customs, the Hong Kong Police Force and the Hong Kong Immigration Department, but the "Hong Kong National Security Council" in addition to the Chief Secretary for Administration and the Secretary for Security In addition, the Commissioner of Customs, the Commissioner of Police and the Director of Immigration are included, and the "Macao National Security Commission" does not include the chief of the Public Security Police responsible for similar tasks, nor is it as detailed as "Hong Kong" level in Hong Kong. Only the heads of superior institutions in these departments are required to join-this may stem from Hong Kong as an international city, whether it is an economic enterprise or a political group, which has close contacts with overseas organizations itself, and immigration matters are also very frequent, in order to be subject to anti-repair For example, in the case of the storm in 2019, 310 million people were recorded throughout the year; therefore, the deployment of relevant departments can be described as a strong line of defense for maintaining national security.
Macao is under the Chief Executive, the first layer is "Five Divisions", followed by "Bureaus" and "Departments", of which the "Five Divisions" are the Administration and Legal Affairs Department, the Economic and Financial Department, the Security Department, the Social Culture Department and the Transportation and Public Works Division. (Getty Images)
Why is the scope of power narrower?
As for the main functions of the "Hong Kong National Security Council", it will include: (1) analyzing and judging the situation of Hong Kong's maintenance of national security, planning work, and formulating policies; (2) advancing the construction of Hong Kong's legal system and enforcement mechanism for maintaining national security; ( 3) Coordinate Hong Kong's key work and major actions to maintain national security. In fact, these tasks are covered by the five functions and powers of the "Macao National Security Council", but in contrast, the "Hong Kong National Security Council" has two fewer functions-first, the "Hong Kong National Security Council" does not need to be like the "Macao National Security Council" As the first task, it is responsible for coordinating and coordinating Macao's work to safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and to study and implement relevant deployment and chief executive orders; secondly, the "Hong Kong National Security Council" does not need to function like the last one of the "Macao National Security Council" , Responsible for coordinating and handling other matters involving national security in Macao.
It is not difficult to see that, compared to the "Macao National Security Council", the "Hong Kong National Security Council" lacks an important function of "coordination". Who should be responsible for this work? At this stage, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress has not yet made a clear explanation; however, it can be seen from Shen Chunyao's explanation that the "National Security Office in Hong Kong" established by the Central Government in Hong Kong may play a key role. He pointed out that the "National Security Office in Hong Kong" has the following responsibilities: (1) analyze and judge the situation of Hong Kong's national security maintenance, and put forward opinions and suggestions on major strategies and important policies for national security maintenance; (2) supervision, guidance, coordination, and support The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region performs its duties of maintaining national security; (3) collects and analyzes national security intelligence information, etc.; (4) handles national security cases under specific circumstances. In addition, the "National Security Office in Hong Kong" must establish a coordination mechanism with the "Hong Kong National Security Commission" to supervise, guide, and coordinate Hong Kong's national security issues-from the current data, it is difficult to determine who these two agencies are. Which one is higher, but from the words "supervision", "guidance" and "coordination" in the functions of the "public office", the "public office" may be responsible for coordinating the relevant work.
Of course, the specific responsibilities of the "National Security Agency in Hong Kong" and the "Hong Kong National Security Commission" are still to be further explained by the authorities. The question is why the "Macao National Security Council" can do what Hong Kong can't? Perhaps this is the difference that Macau has already fulfilled its constitutional responsibilities and has completed the legislative work of Article 23 of the Basic Law, but Hong Kong has long regarded it as a "fighting beast" until national security is threatened and the central government must act.
The "Hong Kong version of the National Security Law" is more abundant than the "National Security Law of Macau". It contains comprehensive laws including three substantive laws, organizational laws and procedural laws, so it covers more complete regulations from legislation to law enforcement. (Information picture/photo by Luo Junhao)
After the legislation, can Hong Kong be once and for all?
However, it must be added that the Law on the Maintenance of National Security adopted by Macao since 2009 is only a "substantial law", that is, it only regulates the rights and obligations of maintaining national security, turning treason, splitting the country, inciting rebellion, and subverting the Central People's Government. , Stealing state secrets, conducting political activities by foreign political organizations, establishing political relations between Macao political organizations and foreign countries and other acts that endanger national security are classified as criminal offences, but they do not cover the "Procedural Law" or "Organizational Law", that is, they are not clear It stipulates the relevant law enforcement procedures and specific functions of law enforcement agencies; therefore, in the eleven years since the legislation, the Macao authorities have continuously amended the law and legislation, for example, became the "Macao National Security Council" in 2018 to coordinate and promote the work, and passed it in 2019 Amend the "Judicial Organization Outline Law", which stipulates that only judges belonging to Chinese citizens and judicial officers of the prosecutor's office can be assigned to handle Guoan cases, and then pass the amendment of the "Judicial Police" law in 2020 and establish the "Judicial Police Bureau special procedures system ", clearly empowering the Judicial Police to investigate national security cases; in addition, Macau will also revise the "Organization and Operation of the Judicial Police" regulations to establish the Security Agency, the National Security Intelligence Service, the National Security Crime Investigation Office, and the National Security Policy Research Office, National Security Affairs Comprehensive Office, etc.
However, the "Hong Kong version of the National Security Law" is more abundant than the "National Security Law of Macao" and contains comprehensive laws of three legal content characteristics such as substantive law, organizational law and procedural law, so it covers more from legislation to law enforcement. Complete regulations. It is worth mentioning that after the adoption of the "Hong Kong version of the National Security Law", Hong Kong cannot be done once and for all, because the "Hong Kong version of the National Security Law" included in Annex III of the Basic Law only means "direct effective" rather than "direct landing". The "landing" work is still the responsibility of the SAR government, including the announcement and implementation of relevant institutions, research and implementation of supporting laws and regulations, and the legislative work of Article 23 of the Basic Law.
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