Three years of the National Security Law in Hong Kong: goodbye to ‘special status’?

Three years after China’s national security law came into effect in Hong Kong, the rule of law in the enclave is waning, the free flow of information is threatened and a significant number of well-educated young people have emigrated. Beijing’s declared principle of “one country, two systems” is being blurred, raising serious questions about Hong Kong’s status as a “special administrative region” with separate legal, administrative and judicial systems from the mainland.

Hong Kong’s National Security Law (NSL) – officially the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region – has allowed the Hong Kong government to censor various types of content. For example, he recently called on global platforms for streaming that they did not offer Glory to Hong Kong, a song widely considered a protest anthem and considered seditious by the region’s government. Although the song was made available again after a brief period, the case demonstrates the pressure that the Hong Kong government is putting on companies such as Spotify and Google, which remain interested in maintaining their activity in the city.

Second, the NSL has greatly reduced the rule of law in the region by giving the government powers to circumvent the courts, avoiding a fair trial for defendants. The case of media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai illustrates how this puts companies and their property rights at risk. The Hong Kong government froze Lai’s majority of shares in his company Next Media, leading to his liquidation and the end of the pro-democracy newspaper. Apple Daily. The highly politicized case does not reflect the situation of most companies, but it shows the power that the Hong Kong government can exert over such companies.

Finally, more than 100,000 Hong Kongers have emigrated since mid-2020. Surveys show a clear social problem: while the high cost of living and notoriously difficult housing situation continue to influence their decision, more than half of Hong Kongers Respondents in 2022 mentioned political factors, such as concerns about the erosion of freedom, human rights, free information, the implications of the “one country, two systems” doctrine, as well as dissatisfaction with the regional government and “fear or discontent with the NSL”.

This wave of migration has drawn mainly younger, well-educated Hong Kongers with good jobs, alongside more politically active citizens. In addition to transforming the city demographically, this brain drain has left many public services understaffed: the Hong Kong Hospital Authority has organized recruiting rallies for foreign medical personnel, and the local government and police have lowered their employment requirements. To entertain the public, Hong Kong has launched various campaigns and held a “patriotic festival” in early June, replacing the celebration commemorating the events in Tiananmen Square, now banned.

These developments are likely to escalate if the regional government introduces its own, surely stricter, national security law under Article 23 of the city’s Basic Law. It calls on the city to ban seven activities: treason, secession, sedition, government subversion, theft of state secrets, allowing foreign bodies to carry out political activities, and allowing local bodies to establish ties with these. Rather, the Chinese NSL “only” focuses on the four specific crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign organizations.

In fact, the Hong Kong government has claimed that its local security law was necessary to fill “loopholes” in Beijing’s law. Indications of the continued erosion of Hong Kong’s special status in China threaten to spark a debate about its special status internationally: Hong Kong passport holders enjoy visa-free travel to Europe’s Schengen Area, for example. The European Parliament recently passed a non-binding resolution calling on Hong Kong to respect the freedoms of its citizens. Events like this show that in the West concern about the development of the situation is growing. Hong Kong’s special status is doubly threatened.

Article translated from English from the website of MERICS.