National security laws

Now is the perfect time to push through national security law

Until last Friday, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was offering the same take on universal suffrage and national security legislation. Then, after meeting President Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing, the chief executive completely changed her tune.

Since her election campaign, she had been saying she would wait for a favourable environment before reviving plans to enact political reform and Article 23, the section of the Basic Law that requires local legislation against treason, secession, sedition and subversion. The implication is that she would stall on the political front and instead focus on social and livelihood issues, which primarily mean housing.

Now, all that has changed.

“As Chief Executive … I have a responsibility to create favourable conditions [for legislation of Article 23],” she told reporters after the Friday meeting with Xi.

In the past few months, mainland honchos have been expressing impatience at the lack of progress on the national security law in Hong Kong. Now, Beijing seems to have instructed Lam in no uncertain terms to get it done.