Hong Kong fast-tracks security law changes amid geopolitical tensions

Hong Kong gazetted a subsidiary legislation to its domestic security law on Tuesday, with new regulations taking effect on the same day, as a government spokesman said the law needed to be enacted as soon as possible due to potential unforeseen circumstances amid escalating geopolitical tensions.

The gazetted document was signed by Acting Chief Executive Eric Chan Kwok-ki as the city’s leader John Lee Ka-chiu is in Kuwait for a business trip.

On Monday, the government announced the new legislation, which aims to amend the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance to provide greater clarity and better support to Beijing’s Office for Safeguarding National Security.

However, a day after the new subsidiary law was tabled to a Legislative Council panel for deliberations, a government spokesman stated that this would no longer be the case.

He explained that it would now be subject to a ‘first enactment, then vetting’ process in the Legislative Council.

“Against the increasingly turbulent global geopolitical landscape, national security risks to which the HKSAR is exposed can arise all of a sudden,” he said.