Two new pieces of national security legislation in Hong Kong introduce six offenses and six “prohibited places,” signaling closer alignment with the laws of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) mainland and raising concerns about the safety and freedom of foreigners and locals.
The Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS), Beijing’s counter-subversion arm, is central to these efforts. Established in 2020, its leadership is selected from the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing.
The apparent requisition of around 1,700 rooms across four hotels suggest that Beijing’s security presence on the ground in Hong Kong is set to ramp up and could lead to increased efforts to build cases against targets abroad and their relatives at home.
The Hong Kong government rushed two pieces of security-related legislation through the Legislative Council in a single day on 13 May. Six new national security offenses and six “prohibited places” (禁地) were unveiled,
enacted under the National Security Law. The government claimed that the urgency was due to an “increasingly turbulent global geopolitical landscape” (全球地緣政治局勢震盪升溫) (China Brief, March 1, 2024; Hong Kong E-legislation, May 13; (Hong Kong Government Information Office, May 13). Officials have also stated that the legislation will support the work of the Office for Safeguarding National Security (OSNS; 特别行政区维护国家安全公署), the central government’s powerful counter-subversion arm in Hong Kong. This suggests that Beijing may deploy additional security personnel to the city in the near future.
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