National Security Law in Hong Kong: Quo Vadis - A Study of Article 23 of the Basic Law of Hong Kong

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ARTICLES NATIONAL SECURITY LAW IN HONG KONG: QUO VADIS A STUDY OF ARTICLE 23 OF THE BASIC LAW OF HONG KONG H. L. Fu and Richard Cullen* I. INTRODUCTION Since the creation of British Hong Kong more than 150 years ago, and especially since the formation of the People's Re- public of China (PRC) in 1949, Hong Kong and the PRC have developed two entirely different legal and political cultures. As the termination of the lease over Hong Kong's New Territories drew closer in the 1980s, a treaty was entered into (known as the Joint Declaration) between the PRC and the United Kingdom. The Joint Declaration set out various grounds for the reunifica- tion of the (British) Territory of Hong Kong with Mainland China. 1 This resumption of sovereignty took place on July 1, 1997 when Hong Kong became the Hong Kong Special Adminis- trative Region (HKSAR) of the PRC. Following the signing of the Joint Declaration, the Basic Law 2 of the HKSAR was drafted * H. L. Fu is currently an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. Richard Cullen is currently a Visiting Professor at the School of Law at the City University of Hong Kong and is also a Professor in the Department of Business Law and Taxation at Monash University in Victoria, Aus- tralia. This article also draws on arguments made in H. L. Fu, Richard Cullen & Pinky Choy, Curbing the Enemies of the State, 5 J. OF CHINESE & CoMP. L. 45 (2001- 02). The authors would like to express their thanks to Pinky Choy of the School of Law, City University of Hong Kong for her invaluable assistance. The authors also wish to express their thanks to the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong for fund- ing the research on which this paper is based. The views expressed are those of the authors. 1. This term is used to denote that part of China comprising the PRC but not Hong Kong and Macao and not including Taiwan. 2. THE BASIC LAW OF THE HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION OF THE P.R.C. (1990) [hereinafter BASIC LAW].