Via HKFP, more explanation from the CE of the make-things-NatSec plan…
A Hong Kong government proposal that will allow the city’s leader to certify criminal acts as national security offences is intended to “make the law clear,” Chief Executive John Lee has said.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Lee said the new subsidiary legislation for Hong Kong’s homegrown national security law, the Safeguarding National Security Ordinance, commonly known as Article 23, “is purely to make the law even clearer.”
From RTHK…
Chief Executive John Lee said on Tuesday that a proposed piece of subsidiary legislation to clearly define the classification mechanism for “other offences endangering national security under the law of the HKSAR” will make the relevant laws clearer for the administration of justice.
Under the proposal … if the chief executive issues a certificate under the law confirming that a criminal act involves national security, the case shall be treated as one.
And where a person is charged with – or convicted of – an alternative offence arising from the same act in a case involving a national security offence, that alternative offence shall also be classified as an offence endangering national security.
Speaking ahead of the weekly Executive Council meeting, Lee said the move “will have the benefit of reducing the risk of controversies or debates in court about what constitutes an offence endangering national security”.
Hope that clears it all up for you.
Mark Simon on why Beijing should release Jimmy Lai…
…In Hong Kong, it’s mission accomplished. There is no sign of any political dissent on the campus or on the streets, certainly none in the boardroom or newsroom. Would releasing political prisoners change that situation? Hundreds have been released and no trouble yet. Would it be any different if others were released, or more importantly released to leave Hong Kong? This is the premise for the cost benefit analysis of imprisoning Jimmy Lai.
So what exactly is the cost? It begins with reputation and compounds from there. Hong Kong’s extraordinary run as Asia’s premier financial hub was built not merely on geography or low taxes, but on a credible rule of law — the idea that contracts would be honored, courts would be independent, and journalists could report freely. Jimmy Lai’s trial, stretching on for years under a national security law that most Western legal scholars regard as fundamentally incompatible with common law traditions, has become a living advertisement that those guarantees are gone. Every time Lai’s case appears in the financial press, every time a Western government issues a statement calling for his release, Hong Kong’s brand takes another quiet but measurable hit.
Non national security cases before the NSL was imposed can also now be treated as national security cases under the new secondary legislation if certified by the CE effectively making the NSL retroactive. We already knew about its retroactive nature thanks to the Jimmy Lai case but now there are “rules and procedure” in place to reconstitute the normative state.
Hong Kong’s dual state is in full effect and the prerogative state can convict you for any reason at any time if they feel threatened.
A few years back a University of Hong Kong law department paper was shared on here explaining the dual state model and how it applies to Hong Kong which I found to be very helpful with understanding the CCP as the face of the prerogative state and their need to have unlimited arbitrary sovereign power in Hong Kong at the flip of the switch while maintaining a facade of normality and predictability of the legal system for day to day operations that CCP is not personally interested in.
“A few years back a University of Hong Kong law department paper was shared on here explaining the dual state model and how it applies to Hong Kong…”
This one?
https://researchblog.law.hku.hk/2022/09/cora-chan-on-legal-pluralism-and-dual.html
More here:
https://dajf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Eva-Pils-Presentation.pdf
A former cop’s wet dream cum true.
@soft resister
That is the one, though your link doesn’t seem to offer free access.
Free access to the full Dual State paper is here:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4288387
It is around 27 pages and I think it’s an interesting read. Also I think all sovereign states are two faced and therefore resemble some spectrum of dual state. When under threat all sovereign states will exercise unlimited sovereign power and suspend rights. A piece of paper in reality will never limit state power on its own.
What the US did to Japanese Americans during WW2 is the perfect example and it was even upheld by the Supreme Court. Their constitutional rights meant nothing. As Carlin famously said the only right the Japanese-Americans had was right this way into the camps.
Transparency and free flow of information certainly do help limit state power which is why the dual state apparatus is a fairly small pocket of unlimited power in western democracies compared to true dictatorships where the prerogative state comes up in a more frequent and arbitrary manner. Such dictatorships are also very quick to muzzle the media.
@Chinese Netizen
My money says the pair of them cooked up the idea in the first place.
Who knew that the Heung Yee Kuk had a European branch?
https://ukctransparency.substack.com/p/the-alleged-underworld-boss-close
HYK is big in UK, especially in Scotland.
This is where they trawl for the youngsters with ‘Ding’ rights and persuade them to come here for a few weeks to sign them over to HYK for a modest sum. It used to be 10,000 quid but now that the prices of village houses have plummeted is probably a lot less these days. Friends of mine used to introduce me to their young bros from time to time when theywere here for the ritual.
Certain Patriots who are legals made their pot handling the paperwork.
There is plenty of documentary evidence that Japanese spying took place in Hawaii and on the West Coast of America leading up to and during World War II.
Also, a submarine-launched Japanese naval bombardment of Santa Barbara, California occurred in February 1942.
The justification for the Japanese internments was rational at the time, even if the scope & duration of the programme were extreme.
Hindsight is 20/20.