Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23

Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23 is the basis of a security law proposed by the Government of Hong Kong. It states:

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets, to prohibit foreign political organizations or bodies from conducting political activities in the Region, and to prohibit political organizations or bodies of the Region from establishing ties with foreign political organizations or bodies.

On 24 September 2002, the government released its proposals for the anti-subversion law. It is the cause of considerable controversy and division in Hong Kong, which operates as a separate legal system in accordance with the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Protests against the bill resulted in a massive demonstrations on 1 July 2003. In the aftermath, two Executive Committee members resigned and the bill was withdrawn after it became clear that it would not get the necessary support from the Legislative Council for it to be passed. The bill was then shelved indefinitely.

Read more about Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23:  Background, Positions, Timeline, Aftermath

Famous quotes containing the words basic, law and/or article:

    “Scientific reason, with its strict conscience, its lack of prejudice, and its determination to question every result again the moment it might lead to the least intellectual advantage, does in an area of secondary interest what we ought to be doing with the basic questions of life.”
    —Robert Musil (1880–1942)

    “The law of humanity ought to be composed of the past, the present, and the future, that we bear within us; whoever possesses but one of these terms, has but a fragment of the law of the moral world.”
    —Edgar Quinet (1803–1875)

    “Be assured that it gives much more pain to the mind to be in debt, than to do without any article whatever which we may seem to want.”
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)