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Hong Kong national security law
Hong KongPolitics

National security law: will Hong Kong residents find themselves in hot water by chanting separatist slogans?

  • A police source says anyone uttering such slogans could be arrested
  • Justice minister Teresa Cheng does not give a straight answer when asked whether chanting ‘Hong Kong independence’ is prohibited

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Anti-government protesters wave Hong Kong independence flags in Causeway Bay on Wednesday. Photo: Winson Wong
Sum Lok-kei,Natalie WongandChan Ho-him
Hong Kong’s justice minister has stopped short of saying whether separatist slogans are outlawed under the new national security law after demonstrators continued to utter pro-independence chants during an unauthorised July 1 protest.
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China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, passed the law on Tuesday morning and it was gazetted in Hong Kong at 11pm. The law punishes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign and external forces. Residents can fall foul of the first two crimes regardless of whether force is used.

The day after the law was passed, on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain, thousands of people took to the streets in an unsanctioned protest. Some chanted pro-independence slogans, such as “Hong Kong independence, the only way out”, along with others calling for the police force to be disbanded and for protesters’ demands to be addressed.

We can’t say whether [a person] is guilty of subversion or not by looking at just the slogan
Teresa Cheng, secretary of justice

Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah did not give a straight answer when asked whether chanting “Hong Kong independence” was prohibited. The context of the utterance would have to be examined in each case, she said.

“We can’t say whether [a person] is guilty of subversion or not by looking at just the slogan,” Cheng said. “We need to understand the background, whether there are acts and criminal intentions that can be interpreted as advocating Hong Kong independence.”

03:25

Hong Kong police arrest 10 under new national security law

Hong Kong police arrest 10 under new national security law
But a police source who attended a briefing for frontline officers said they were told anyone uttering pro-independence slogans could be arrested, including “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”.

While the phrase itself was not overtly pro-independence, the source noted it arose as part of a localist campaign launched by Edward Leung Tin-kei, the former convenor of the group Hong Kong Indigenous. He is serving a six-year jail sentence for his role in the Mong Kok riot in 2016.
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