National Security Department 國家安全處 | |
---|---|
Abbreviation | NS |
Agency overview | |
Formed | 1 July 2020 |
Jurisdictional structure | |
Operations jurisdiction | Hong Kong |
Legal jurisdiction | Hong Kong |
Constituting instrument | |
Operational structure | |
Overseen by | Committee for Safeguarding National Security |
Agency executive |
|
Parent agency | Hong Kong Police Force |
Website | |
police.gov.hk/ns |
The National Security Department (noted as NS) is the Hong Kong Police Force national security law enforcement agency established by the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020. [1]
The National Security Department is led by a Deputy Commissioner of Police, who is appointed by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. [2] The department recruits from outside Hong Kong "to provide assistance in the performance of duties for safeguarding national security." [3] The department works with the Office for Safeguarding National Security and is supervised by the Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Government of Hong Kong.
According to Article 17 of the National Security Law, the duties and functions of the department shall be: [3]
According to Article 43 of the National Security Law, the department is allowed to take the following actions:
The National Security Department is given unprecedented power of bypassing Interception of Communications and Surveillance Ordinance to intercept communication of and monitor anyone suspected of endangering the national security. Warrants from courts are no longer needed for the department to search any premises with possible criminal evidence. [4] Furthermore, the department is responsible for vetting candidates for elections after the election change imposed by the Chinese Government. [5]
Also Deputy Commissioner of Police (National Security)
Also Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police
The National Security Department has accused and arrested dissenting voices in Hong Kong for "endangering" the national security, including pro-democracy politicians and protestors. Some websites were also reportedly banned by the department, including Hong Kong Watch. [11]
Police in the department had to be vetted to review the allegiance and loyalty to China, non-disclosure agreements are signed also. [12]
Senior police of the department has been sanctioned by the United States, including Edwina Lau, Frederic Choi, for their role in enforcing the NSL. [13] [14]
According to local newspaper Ming Pao, police from the NSD regularly, sometimes monthly, met the activists to learn of their latest activities. One claimed he was contacted four times by the security police within one month, warning them any movement on "special days" could lead to arrest. These meetings increased significantly in 2023, as members of NGOs and former local councillors were approached for the first time. [15]
In December 2022, in the case against Stand News, it was revealed that officers from the National Security Department had archived 587 articles from the website, sought prosecutors' advice on 30 of them, and then discarded the remaining articles. [16] The defense argued that a fair trial would be impossible, since evidence was destroyed. [16] An officer, Fung Siu-man, told the court that only national security police had access to a Facebook account under the fake name of "Tang Kee." An officer who used the account left a Facebook comment, saying "Even if [the primaries] did not violate any laws, God will not let you off," to which people in the court laughed at. [17]
In May 2023, the department confiscated from storage the Pillar of Shame commemorating victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. It cited an ongoing case under investigation. The sculpture was on exhibit at the University of Hong Kong before campus authorities removed it in 2021 and placed it in storage at the university's Kadoorie Centre. [18]
In 2022, journalists and members of the legal team representing media tycoon Jimmy Lai internationally received threatening messages purportedly from the Security Bureau and the national security wing of the Hong Kong Police Force. The Hong Kong police issued a statement condemning acts of impersonation and asked for more information from those involved in order to follow up on the incident. [19]
In general, there is relatively little Internet censorship in Hong Kong beyond laws that criminalize the distribution of unlicensed copyrighted material and obscene images, particularly child pornography when compared to the rest of China.
Andrew Wan Siu-kin is the former vice-chairman of the Democratic Party and a former member of the Kwai Tsing District Council for Shek Yam constituency. He was elected in the 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election through New Territories West.
The Decision of the National People's Congress on Establishing and Improving the Legal System and Enforcement Mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to Safeguard National Security is a congressional resolution passed by the third session of the 13th National People's Congress on 28 May 2020. This resolution authorizes the National People's Congress Standing Committee to promulgate a national security law in Hong Kong.
The month of June 2020 was the first anniversary of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests. The decision taken by the National People's Congress on national security legislation and the alleviation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong led to a new series of protests and international responses. On 30 June, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the Hong Kong national security law which came into force the same day, leading to even more people protesting on 1 July.
The month of July 2020 in the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests began with a turning point in the evolution of the protests, brought about by the Hong Kong national security law. The law, which had been passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China on 30 June and come into effect on the same day, was widely seen as having the purpose of curbing opposition, in a broad sense, against the Chinese Communist Party in the city. The law had direct relevance to the protests, as it prescribes harsh penalties for the tactics that protesters had commonly used. Nevertheless, sizeable protests erupted throughout the city on occasion of the 1 July protests the next day, resulting in about 370 arrests, including at least ten on charges under the new law. The Hong Kong government, faced with the task of implementing a law that had been drafted and promulgated without substantial involvement by its own officials, was seen widely, including in the academic and media sectors, as being unable to draw a clear demarcation line between which acts would constitute punishable offences under the law, and which would not. The vagueness of the law, while refused by the city's police chief, was seen by pro-democrats and observers as a deliberate device to amplify its deterrence effect.
The Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (OSNS) is the Chinese central government's national security office in Hong Kong. The office was established in July 2020 by the Hong Kong national security law.
The Committee for Safeguarding National Security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is a national security committee established by the Government of Hong Kong under the Article 12 of the Hong Kong national security law. The committee is supervised and accountable to the Central People's Government of China.
The enactment of the Hong Kong national security law on 30 June 2020 has since caused huge changes in Hong Kong’s local education, government, culture, society, and economy. These effects are considered to be the result of the Hong Kong government’s continuing autocratization.
The offices of Apple Daily, once the largest pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, and its parent company, Next Digital, were raided and executives arrested by the Hong Kong Police Force on 10 August 2020 and again on 17 June 2021. Some of the arrested and three companies of Next Digital were charged under the Hong Kong national security law. The 26-year-old newspaper was forced to close in June 2021 following the raids and freezing of its capital.
The written traditional Chinese characters for vertical banners are "直幡", and the horizontal counterpart, horizontal banners are written as "横額" in traditional Chinese.
HKChronicles is a pro-Hong Kong democracy doxing website which details the personal information of Hong Kong police officers and pro-Beijing individuals. It was created by Naomi Chan, an 18-year-old high school student who is also the chief editor of the site.
On 10 August 2020, Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was arrested by Hong Kong police under Hong Kong national security law. Her arrest caused widespread controversy in the international community.
A dramatic manifestation of the far reach of the Hong Kong national security law was the mass arrest of 54 pro-democracy activists on 6 January. The arrested stood accused of subverting state power, a crime under the national security law, for their participation as candidates or in other capacities, in the 2020 Hong Kong pro-democracy primaries, which was part of a plan to increase pressure in parliament for democratic reform. Most of them were released on bail the following day. For the first time, the National Security Department of the police cited the national security law to block the website of HKChronicles. There were also several convictions in relation to the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests.
In Hong Kong, designated national security law judges are incumbent magistrates or judges who are further appointed by the Chief Executive to handle national security offence cases at various levels of the court system. Judges without the designation by the Chief Executive are not allowed to handle these cases.
Louise Ho Pui-shan is a Hong Kong civil servant and principal official, currently serving as Commissioner of Customs and Excise, the first woman to hold that post.
On 29 December 2021, Stand News, one of the few remaining pro-democracy media outlets in Hong Kong following the passage of the Hong Kong national security law in 2020, was raided by the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force. Media executives and journalists were arrested on the charge of "conspiring to publish seditious publications" on a large scale. As a result of the raid, Stand News ceased operations, the organisation's website and social media became inactive, and all its employees were dismissed. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with leaders in Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and United States, condemned the raid.
HKSAR v. Lai Chee Ying was an appeal involving points of law by the Department of Justice over the decision of the Court of First Instance (CFI) to grant bail to the founder of Apple Daily Jimmy Lai. The Court of Final Appeal (CFA) reversed the CFI's interpretation of art.42(2) of the Hong Kong national security law.
The Kapok Flag is the flag used by the Cantonese nationalist movement and represents the Cantonese people of southern China, as well as their language and culture. As one of the "nine independence" flags, it was banned in Hong Kong after the implementation of Hong Kong national security law.