| Offence |
Existing Provisions |
Legislative Proposals |
| Treason |
Killing, wounding or assaulting the head of
state. |
To repeal the relevant provisions. |
| Misprision of treason. |
To repeal the offence of misprision of treason. |
| Levying war on the Central People's
Government (CPG) with an intent to overthrow the CPG. (At
common law, 'levying war' is not limited to
military actions or the involvement of weapons.) |
To narrow the offence to war?time acts, and
to require the joining of foreign armed forces at war with
the People's Republic of China (PRC) to constitute
the offence. ('War' is defined as publicly declared
war or open armed conflicts.) |
| Instigating foreign nationals to invade the PRC. |
To narrow the offence to instigating foreign
armed forces to invade the PRC. |
| Assisting by any means public enemies at war with the
PRC. |
Assisting public enemies at war with the PRC
by doing any act with intent to prejudice the position of
the PRC in the war. |
| Treason is applicable to foreign nationals resident in
Hong Kong. |
Only applicable to Chinese nationals. |
| Subversion and Secession |
Presently covered by the treason offence. Levying war
in order by force or constraint to compel the CPG to change
its measures or counsels, or with the intent to abolish
the sovereignty of CPG over any part of its territory, would
amount to treason. |
To commit the offences, an offender must achieve
the subversion or secession by means of war, force or serious
criminal means. The force or criminal means employed must
be of such an extent that the stability or territorial integrity
of the PRC would be seriously endangered. |
| Sedition |
'Seditious intention' refers to an intention
-
| (i) |
to bring into hatred or contempt the head of state
or the HKSAR Government; |
| (ii) |
to raise discontent or disaffection amongst Chinese
nationals or residents of Hong Kong; |
| (iii) |
to promote feelings of ill?will and enmity between
different classes of the population of Hong Kong;
or |
| (iv) |
to counsel disobedience to law or to any lawful
order. |
Any
person who utters any words having a seditious intention,
or does any
act with a seditious intention, commits sedition.
|
The existing offence will be abolished.
Instead, it will be an offence of sedition only when one
intentionally
incites others to commit treason, subversion or secession,
or to engage in violent public disorder that would seriously
endanger the stability of the PRC.
The 'intention' and 'likelihood' principles
of the Johannesburg Principles will be included. |
| 'Seditious publication' is one which has the
above 'seditious intention'. |
The definition of 'seditious publication' will
be narrowed to 'publication that is likely to induce
a person to commit the offences of treason, subversion or
secession'. Whether a publication is seditious will
be determined by a jury (not the government). |
| Possessing seditious publication is an offence. |
The offence of possessing seditious publication
will be repealed. |
| Handling seditious publication is an offence. |
The 'intention' element will be
included. One must have the intention to incite others to
commit treason, subversion or secession to commit the offence. |
| Theft of State Secrets |
Under the Official Secrets Ordinance, four categories
of information are protected from unlawful disclosure, including
information on 'relations between the PRC and Hong
Kong'. |
The Official Secrets Ordinance will be retained.
Information on 'relations between the PRC and Hong
Kong' will be narrowed to 'Hong Kong affairs
within the responsibility of the Central Authorities under
the Basic Law', and disclosure of such information
would be an offence only when it would endanger, or likely
to endanger, the territorial integrity or independence of
the PRC. |
| The definition of 'public servant' includes
Mainland public servants. Any person who makes a damaging
disclosure of protected information obtained from Mainland
public servants commits an offence. |
'Public servant' will no longer
include Mainland public servants. |
| |
In order to plug a loophole, a provision will
be included to prohibit damaging disclosure of protected
information obtained through specified criminal means (e.g.
hacking, theft or bribery), when one knows or has reasonable
cause to believe so. |
| Proscription of organisations endangering national security |
The Secretary for Security can prohibit the operation
of any local societies on grounds of national security.
A prohibited organisation can appeal to the Chief Executive
in Council. |
The Secretary for Security will be able to
proscribe a local organisation on grounds of national security,
but only under the following three circumstances :
| (i) |
the organisation has committed, or is attempting
to commit, acts of treason, subversion, secession,
sedition or spying; |
| (ii) |
the objective of the organisation is to commit the
acts above; or |
| (iii) |
the organisation is subordinate to a Mainland organisation
whose operation has been prohibited by the Central
Authorities on grounds of the security of the PRC. |
The decision of the Secretary for Security must
fully comply
with international human rights standards. A proscribed
organisation can appeal to the courts of Hong Kong.
|
