HK security law update brings Beijing's enforcement office out of the shadows

Move introduces six new offences, designates six sites as 'prohibited places'

- Magdalene Fung

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 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.