HK's national security law update brings China's Beijing office ‘out of the shadows'

Straits Times

22-05-2025

On May 13, City Garden Hotel in the North Point district was designated a 'prohibited place' occupied by Beijing's Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. SCREENGRAB: GOOGLE MAPS
News analysis A HK hotel famed for S'pore food is now closed to the public. The reason: A national security law update
HONG KONG – In front of a traffic junction in Hong Kong island's North Point district stands a nondescript building in white bearing the name 'City Garden Hotel'.
For years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the hotel – owned by Singaporean tycoon Robert Ng's Sino Group – was a popular haunt among Singaporeans and Malaysians living in Hong Kong seeking an authentic taste of home at the Satay Inn restaurant housed within its basement.
But now, both restaurant and hotel have closed their doors to the public; and the once-transparent floor-to-ceiling windows that punctuated the building's glossy black facade have been covered with frosted film, denying passers-by on the streets below any glimpse of what goes on inside.
On May 13, City Garden Hotel was designated a 'prohibited place' occupied by Beijing's Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong.
The designation is part of a series of new subsidiary laws that Hong Kong has enacted under its Article 23 national security legislation.
The updates to Article 23 spell out more clearly the Beijing office's powers in exercising jurisdiction over national security cases in Hong Kong, essentially allowing it to operate more effectively and openly in the territory.
They introduce six new offences to facilitate the work of Beijing's national security office in Hong Kong, and designate six sites occupied by the office as prohibited places to keep out spies.
The new offences include giving the office false or misleading information and failing to keep secret its measures or investigations. They are punishable by jail terms of up to seven years and fines of as much as HK$500,000 (S$82,400).
The prohibited sites comprise City Garden Hotel, Island Pacific Hotel in Sai Ying Pun, two Metropark hotels in Causeway Bay and Hung Hom, and two areas in Tai Kok Tsui at which Beijing's national security office will be built.
Trespassers who disobey police guard orders or obstruct their duties at these places face up to two years' jail. Those found spying there, such as inspecting the sites in person or through the use of electronic devices, can be jailed for up to 20 years.
City Garden and Island Pacific are owned by Mr Ng and his family's Hong Kong-listed property developer Sino Group.
The Singaporean billionaire and three of his children were in April designated by the Singapore government as 'politically significant persons' under the nation's foreign interference law aimed at preventing foreign influence in domestic politics.
Mr Ng and his children Daryl, David and Nikki are members of China's top political advisory body, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Sino Group did not respond to queries from The Straits Times.
The two other hotels are owned by China's state-owned China Travel Service.
The enactment of the new subsidiary laws to Article 23 came swiftly – barely a day after the proposal was disclosed and tabled in the Legislative Council (LegCo) on May 12.
Bills typically have to be gazetted, or made known to the public, and then pass through three LegCo readings – which can vary from a day to more than a year – before they are enacted.
But these new laws were passed through a so-called 'negative vetting' process that allowed for them to take effect before being reviewed by lawmakers. The legislature completed its scrutiny of the regulations two days after their enactment.
Chief Executive John Lee said the legislation's swift enactment was 'imperative' to 'ensure legal certainty' and combat threats to Hong Kong amid growing global instability.
Such threats 'are like viruses (that) always exist around us, poised to cause harm', Mr Lee told the media at his weekly press conference on May 20.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post cited a source familiar with the legislative agenda as saying that developments in the US-China tariff war on May 12 made it 'a prime window for Hong Kong to fast-track the legislation when the global news agenda was on the trade truce'.
It would allow the move to escape foreign media attention and criticism. China and the United States agreed to slash reciprocal tariffs on each other that day. The US would be ' very unlikely' to impose new punitive measures against Hong Kong over the new laws during this period, the newspaper quoted the unnamed source as saying.
At the presser, Mr Lee sought to assuage concerns that the update grants more powers to Beijing's national security office in Hong Kong.
'The subsidiary legislation does not grant new powers to the (office),' he said. 'It provides a clearer and more detailed description of the powers that already exist under the present law, thereby increasing legal certainty and precision.'
A national security law was first imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing in June 2020 after mass anti-government protests in 2019. That allowed the mainland authorities to set up a national security office in the territory with the power to gather intelligence and enforce the law .
This office can exercise jurisdiction over a national security case in Hong Kong under 'special circumstances', such as when it is 'complex' and involves foreign countries, if the local government is unable to do so itself, or in the face of a 'major and imminent threat'.
Hong Kong later enacted its own complementary-but-broader legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law, the city's mini-Constitution, in March 2024.
Professor John Burns, from the University of Hong Kong's (HKU) politics and public administration department, said the updates to Article 23 are 'implementation rules to help officers from Beijing's national security office carry out their work in Hong Kong'.
'The office has been operating in the shadows. The new laws now make it more transparent, so that it can more directly and openly operate in Hong Kong,' he told ST.
'The new laws haven't added to the office's powers; it's already very powerful. But the laws clarify what the office can do and list them out specifically.'
Professor Simon Young, a practising barrister and HKU law professor, said the regulations 'serve to normalise the mainland office as a Hong Kong law enforcement agency'.
They do not signal whether the office is more likely to exercise jurisdiction over security cases in Hong Kong, Prof Young told ST , adding, however, that they ' do suggest that there will be closer cooperation between the mainland office and local law enforcement agencies to better protect national security'.
At Mr Lee's May 20 presser, the Chief Executive skirted a reporter's question on how many staff were under the office's employ.
Local media have previously reported that the City Garden and Island Pacific hotels were being used by the office for staff accommodation, while the Metropark Hotel in Causeway Bay has been its temporary headquarters since July 2020.
Together, City Garden and Island Pacific provide 948 rooms for accommodation, while the two Metropark Hotels in Causeway Bay and Hung Hom have a combined 753 rooms.
'These figures indicate a significant increase in the number of personnel stationed in Hong Kong since the mainland office was initially established in 2020 ,' Prof Burns said. 'It brings to everyone's attention that a fairly large central government police force is operating in Hong Kong.'
Magdalene Fung is The Straits Times' Hong Kong correspondent. She is a Singaporean who has spent about a decade living and working in Hong Kong.
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