{"id":184711,"date":"2015-07-09T01:34:45","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T08:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=184711"},"modified":"2015-07-09T08:41:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T15:41:03","slug":"u-n-commissioner-new-security-law-too-broad-too-vague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2015\/07\/u-n-commissioner-new-security-law-too-broad-too-vague\/","title":{"rendered":"U.N. Commissioner: Security Law “Too Broad, Vague”"},"content":{"rendered":"
The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al Hussein has expressed concern over China\u2019s new national security law<\/strong><\/a>, which passed last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n The new security law covers a large spectrum of issues, including environment, defence, finance, information technology, culture, ideology, education and religion. It also defines the meaning of national security extremely broadly: it is described as the condition in which the country\u2019s government, sovereignty, unification, territorial integrity, well-being of its people, sustainable development of its economy and society and other major interests are relatively safe and not subject to internal and external threats.<\/p>\n \u201cThis law raises many concerns due to its extraordinarily broad scope coupled with the vagueness of its terminology and definitions,\u201d High Commissioner Zeid said. \u201cAs a result, it leaves the door wide open to further restrictions of the rights and freedoms of Chinese citizens, and to even tighter control of civil society by the Chinese authorities than there is already.\u201d<\/p>\n National security laws need to be sufficiently precise to enable individuals to foresee the consequences of their conduct as well as to safeguard against arbitrary or discriminatory enforcement by authorities. \u201cThe law should clearly and narrowly define what constitutes a threat to national security, and identify proper mechanisms to address such threats in a proportionate manner,\u201d Zeid said. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Similar criticisms have been leveled at a draft law to regulate foreign NGOs<\/a>, and another on Internet security, whose draft appeared on Wednesday<\/a>. Amnesty International\u2019s Nicholas Bequelin highlighted these and other elements of the emerging \u201cnational security architecture\u201d in a commentary on the national security law at CNN on Friday<\/strong><\/a>, in which he too noted the new legislation\u2019s extreme range:<\/p>\n From \u201csocial contradictions\u201d to food safety, from environmental crisis to foreign religions, from the Internet to outer space, there is hardly any realm of the country\u2019s activity that doesn\u2019t fall under the rubric of national security risk in the new law.<\/p>\n In part, this is due to the fact that the law overtly conflates maintaining the Party\u2019s monopoly on power and protecting the \u201cpeople\u2019s democratic dictatorship\u201d with national security.<\/p>\n Whereas Chinese legislation usually tries to give the appearance of leaving control with the formal state institutions \u2013 with the Party\u2019s role limited to providing \u201cleadership\u201d \u2013 the new National Security Law is explicit in its ambition to protect the absolute power of the Party.<\/p>\n [\u2026] Since his ascension to power in late 2012, President Xi Jinping has intensified the crackdown on activism and dissent, ramping up the suppression of civil society groups, strengthening Internet censorship and the monitoring of social media, and urging the Party to combat the influence of what it terms \u201cWestern ideas\u201d such as rule of law and media freedom.<\/p>\n But this new law reaches far beyond the traditional targets of the Chinese state authoritarian streak. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Anxiety over its reach also extends to Hong Kong<\/strong><\/a>, according to Global Voices\u2019 Oiwan Lam, who reports fears that activities conducted there could lead to arrest on the mainland, and unease over the new law\u2019s possible influence on the territory\u2019s own:<\/p>\n Although both Leung Chun-Ying, the Hong Kong chief executive, and Rimsky Yuen, the secretary for justice, have assured that China\u2019s national security law will not apply in\u00a0Hong Kong, Yuen also said Hong Kong is in no position to guarantee local activists\u2019 safety in the mainland.<\/p>\n [\u2026] Hong Kongers\u2019 fear is not ungrounded. A local newspaper quoted a source close to the Beijing government that political activists advocating the independence of Hong Kong and ending single-party rule\u00a0would likely be convicted if they step foot onto\u00a0China\u2019s jurisdiction. According to the source, such a reading of the law was supported by mainland Chinese legal experts.<\/p>\n [\u2026] Civic groups in Hong Kong are also worried that China\u2019s national security framework could become a model to change local legislation, specifically Basic Law Article 23. The article states that laws which safeguard national security should be proposed by the government of Hong Kong. In a joint submission handed to the National People Congress, three local and international journalist groups expressed their concern over the impact of China\u2019s national security law in Hong Kong. [\u2026] [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al Hussein has expressed concern over China\u2019s new national security law, which passed last week. The new security law covers a large spectrum of issues, including environment, defence, finance, information technology, culture, ideology, education and religion. It also defines the meaning of national security extremely broadly: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":962,"featured_media":184712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[35,34,10,14744,14745,14746,100,5],"tags":[58,3041,1834,3805,15980,1033,4674],"class_list":["post-184711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hong-kong","category-human-rights","category-law","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-politics","category-society","tag-laws","tag-legal-system","tag-legislation","tag-national-security","tag-u-n-human-rights","tag-united-nations","tag-xi-jinping","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n