On Tuesday, Hong Kong's legislature unanimously passed the city's latest controversial national security legislation, also known as Article 23.
Hong Kong: Broken Promises | The listening post
Critics call the law rushed and fast-tracked, as it was passed within eleven days of its introduction. However, it has been two decades in the making. A similar bill was met with protests in 2003, and a national security bill, on which Article 23 is based, was finally passed in 2020.
This time, the article [PDF] outlaws "any treason, secession, sedition, subversion" against the Chinese government, along with theft of state secrets and outside interference.
Like many documents from Beijing, it is vague in defining crime. It also imposes harsh penalties of up to 20 years in prison for theft of state secrets, or life for treason and sedition.
