Danny Gittings on Unpalatable Realities and Hard Choices - Hong Kong's Article 23 (new book chapter)

"Unpalatable Realities and Hard Choices"

Danny Gittings (PhD candidate)

in Cora Chan & Fiona de Londras (eds), China's National Security: Endangering Hong Kong's Rule of Law? (Hart Publishing, March 2020),

Chapter 16, pp. 297-306

Introduction: The unmistakable message running through the chapters in Part III of this book is that any fresh attempt to enact comprehensive Article 23 legislation is virtually certain to pose far greater challenges to Hong Kong's rule of law and freedoms than its 2003 predecessor. While that, ultimately abandoned, legislative effort was rightly seen as posing significant challenges at the time, for all its flaws many of the offences proposed during that earlier exercise were confined to conduct that means, with the latter defined by reference to anti-terrorism legislation. Then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's administration was careful to stress that the 'mere expression of views' would not have been outlawed under the National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill 2003, unless this incited others to use either force or serious criminal means...