Club Lunch: Reflections on the National Security Law
Date: 12 Oct 2021 12:30 PM — 02:00 PM | Venue: Dining Room
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| LUNCH TALK Reflections on the National Security Law |
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| Hong Kong’s Basic Law, in Article 23, states that the territory shall enact its own laws to protect national security. But an attempt to do so in 2003 failed in the face of widespread public opposition and street protests, and the topic has been shelved ever since. Seventeen years later, in 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress imposed its own sweeping National Security Law on Hong Kong, and local officials, led by the secretary of security, have said the time is ripe for the territory to pass its own version of the security legislation which will define new crimes. Is a new local security law needed? And what new crimes will be included? Our guest, senior barrister Cheng Huan, will speak on the importance and implications of an Article 23 National Security Law, arguably the most significant piece of security legislation since the colonial-era Public Order Ordinance of 1967. Moderated by FCC President Keith Richburg. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cheng Huan had worked as a journalist, before commencing his legal career, for the Far Eastern Economic Review, Asiaweek, and The Guardian and was the first person to report the death of Marshal Lin Biao, the anointed successor to Chairman Mao Zedong. Called to the Hong Kong Bar in 1976, he was made Queen’s Counsel in 1988 with the title changed to Senior Counsel in 1997. He has specialized in criminal law and the law of defamation. Born in Malaysia and educated in Singapore and England, he gained a degree in law and diploma in international law at Cambridge University. He writes a Sunday column for Sing Tao Daily and his latest book Reflections: Childhood, Student Days, Law and Other Writings was published in both Chinese and English this summer. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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