| 2 June 2003
The Editor,
Business Week
Dear Sir,
I refer to the commentary by your Regional Editor Mark L.Clifford ("A post-SARS Rx for Hong Kong"). In commenting on the Hong Kong government's proposed National Security Bill, he repeats the myth that under the proposals if the Mainland declares some act or statement to jeopardize its national security, the courts in Hong Kong will be bound by that ruling. This makes a good story but it is just plain wrong. The classification of information on the Mainland whether as "secret", as "jeopardizing its national security" or as anything else has no relevance at all to the operation of the Official Secrets Ordinance as it now stands or as it will be with the amendments proposed. Nor would such a classification on the Mainland be relevant to any of the other offence provisions proposed under the Bill. Where "national security" is referred to in the legislation it is specifically defined to have a meaning that is consistent with international human rights norms. Mainland laws do not apply in Hong Kong. Hong Kong laws will continue to be interpreted by Hong Kong's independent Judiciary. Far from muzzling Hong Kong's free and outspoken press, the Bill represents a liberalization of the existing laws that have been in place since British colonial rule.
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