Recently, some Western countries lead by the United States have unreasonably accused China of drafting national security laws involving Hong Kong in violation of the "Sino-British Joint Declaration" and the Hong Kong Basic Law. Throughout the world, the central legislature has a decisive leading role in national security legislation. National security is a prerequisite and foundation for a country’s survival and development, and maintaining national security is an important matter involving national sovereignty. In any country in the world, no matter whether it is a unitary system or a federal system, the national security legislative power belongs to the legislative body at the central level of the country. 

Wide variety of national security legislation in the United States and Britain

The United States is the country that attaches the most importance to national security legislation in the world, and it also has the most complete national security legal system. There are many types of national security legislation in the United States, with as many as 20 statutory laws alone. Generally speaking, there are two main categories: One is the "National Security Act of 1947" and its amendments, which are laws of the nature of the basic law, and are the basis and origin of the formulation of other types of security laws in the United States. The other is special national security laws, which are laws formulated for specific security fields. For example, the Intelligence Security Act, the Anti-Terrorism Act, "Section 301", and the "Foreign Investment and National Security Act" belong to special laws for maintaining the national security of the United States.

In the process of constructing its own national security legal system, the British government has enacted legislation on civil defense and national emergency, anti-terrorism, national security agencies, etc., and detailed various regulations to maintain national security into various departmental laws and special laws. For example, in 1986, the British Parliament passed the “Peacetime Civil Defense Act”, further clarifying the scope of responsibility of the central government and local governments in emergency security management; in 1989, the British Parliament promulgated the "National Security Agency Act", which was the first the activities of the Intelligence agency are incorporated into the track of the rule of law, clarifying the duty permission and jurisdiction of the relevant organizations; in November 2004, the British Parliament passed the “National Emergency Response Act”, which defined emergency situations and granted the government emergency powers; in December 2011, the United Kingdom  Parliament passed the "Terrorism Prevention and Detection Measures Act"; in 2015, the British Parliament promulgated the "Anti-Terrorism and Security Act 2015", which has detailed regulations on restrictions on suspects' travel, entry and exit, as well as related investigations and prevention of terrorist crimes.

The highest legislative body of each country is responsible for national security legislation

Throughout the world, all countries attach great importance to national security legislation, and the power of national security legislation belongs to the supreme legislature of each country.

In the United States, Congress has the highest legislative power. The National Security Act of 1947 passed by the U.S. Congress after World War II is the first comprehensive national security law in the United States and the first law in the world to specifically address national security issues. As a federal country, the federal and state have their own relatively independent legislative bodies and judicial systems. The Congress exercises federal legislative power, and each State council is the state legislature and exercises state legislative power. Although every state in the United States has legislative power, we often see that the heads of local governments do not listen to or care about the president's instructions. However, for major matters involving national sovereignty and security issues, local governments have no power. They are still determined by the United States Congress, the country's highest legislature. No state can independently legislate on national security. According to the law, the states must also obey and comply.

The British Parliament is the world's earliest modern democratic representative body and the body with the highest legislative power in the UK. The British Parliament has legislative powers on important national issues. The local councils of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland only have certain autonomy and legislative powers on certain matters in the region. The municipal or county local councils have specific rights to local governments within the scope authorized by the law.  Affairs enjoy limited legislative power. It can be seen that the local legislative power in the UK is very limited and the formulation process is also very strict. For national security legislation involving national sovereignty, only parliament has the legislative power.

The German Basic Law stipulates that the German Bundestag has the highest legislative power.  The "Anti-International Terrorism Act", "Federal Constitution Defense Act", "Energy Security Act", and "Common Anti-terrorism Data Act" in the German national security legal system are all passed by the Federal Parliament. French Parliament has the highest legislative power in the country, the unification of laws related to national security represented by the anti-terrorism law is passed by the French Parliament. Japanese parliament is the country’s highest authority and the sole legislature, and enjoys national legislative power. Japan’s national security strategy and the formulation of related laws and regulations are also controlled by the hands of the cabinet and members of parliament, the law is finally passed by the Japanese parliament. The representative and legislative body of the Russian Federation is the Parliament of the Russian Federation. Russia’s current national security legal system consists of normative legal documents with different levels of effectiveness and scope of effectiveness. The adoption and promulgation of these legal documents are determined by the Russian Federal Parliament.

China's advancement of Hong Kong-related national security legislation is necessary and legitimate

In addition to safeguarding sovereignty, stopping unrest and subverting state power, the core purpose of the establishment of the national security legal system is to protect the safety of people’s lives and property and the stability of social order. Since the incident of last year’s amendment, some rioters in Hong Kong have launched a series of organized violent activities with the instigation and support of foreign forces with the purpose of subverting “One Country, Two Systems” and Hong Kong’s legal system, in an attempt to enable Hong Kong to "independence" by violently resisting the law. This aspect has touched on the issue of national sovereignty. On the other hand, it has also caused social turmoil in Hong Kong. The safety of the lives and property of the Hong Kong people has already been threatened extremely.

Article 1 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China clearly states: "The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is an inseparable part of the People's Republic of China." Hong Kong's "high degree of autonomy" is based on the premise that sovereignty belongs to China. Safeguarding national sovereignty, security and development interests is the basic law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and it is closely related to every Hong Kong citizen.

Article 23 of the Basic Law stipulates that “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any acts of treason, secession, sedition, subversion of the Central People’s Government and theft of state secrets, and prohibit foreign political organizations or groups from conducting politics in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and prohibit political organizations or groups in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from establishing contacts with foreign political organizations or groups.” The Basic Law grants the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region the power to legislate on the maintenance of national security. However, this does not change the nature of national security legislation as the central authority, nor does it change the nature of the National People’s Congress as the supreme legislative power, nor does it legally affect the central legislature to continue to construct legal systems and enforcement mechanisms to maintain national security in accordance with actual conditions and needs. This is the basic right of a sovereign country, and it is the same in all countries in the world. China has no reason to be an exception.

Some people think that the decision of the National People's Congress of China violated the "Sino-British Joint Declaration", which is also untenable. The "Sino-British Joint Declaration" is a "statement" jointly issued by the Chinese government and the British government on the return of Hong Kong. The main matter and function of the statement is to confirm that the United Kingdom must return Hong Kong to China on time and that China implements the "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong. As a historical declaration file, it is impossible to restrict the rights of China's highest legislature. When it comes to national sovereignty and the basic security and stability of Hong Kong society, the Sino-British Joint Declaration cannot have a higher legal effect than China's Constitution and Hong Kong Basic Law.

“The Decision of the National People’s Congress on Establishing and Improving the Legal System and Implementation Mechanism for Maintaining National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region” adopted by the Third Session of the Thirteenth National People’s Congress aims to improve Hong Kong’s legal system and the implementation mechanism on national security is necessary and urgent. On the one hand, it has strengthened and consolidated the "one country, two systems" system. Only by maintaining national security and national sovereignty can the system advantages of "one country, two systems" be fully utilized. On the other hand, it has laid a legal foundation for the future development of Hong Kong's stability, so as to better protect the life and property safety of Hong Kong residents and other legal rights and freedoms.

(Author: Xiao Jinquan , Party secretary and lawyer of Dentons of the Communist Party of China; researcher of National Security and Development Strategy Institute; adjunct Professor in School of Law, China University of Political Science and Law; consultant of INERI)