New security law worries foreign firms in Hong Kong

Several foreign chambers of commerce raised concerns about the legislation of a new national security law in Hong Kong by the time a one-month public consultation period ended Wednesday.

The Hong Kong government on Thursday said it had received a total of 13,147 submissions on its plans to enact national security legislation under Article 23 of the Basic Law. It said 98.6% of submissions showed support and made positive comments.

A Security Bureau spokesperson said 93 submissions, or 0.71%, came out against the proposals, including more than 10 from overseas anti-People’s Republic of China organizations or abscondees.

Secretary for Justice Paul Lam said the government will consolidate the results of the consultation exercise at full steam, report to lawmakers and seek to finalize the legislation bill as soon as possible.

Chambers of commerce representing German, European and Japanese companies in Hong Kong have separately commented on the matter, saying that the new law may hurt investors’ sentiment in the city.

The new definition of state secrets may increase the perception that the “one country” aspect of Hong Kong’s special status is more in focus than the “two systems,” Johannes Hack, the president of the German Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, told the Associated Press in an email interview.

“For Hong Kong to present a distinctive business advantage vis-a-vis the mainland, the two systems part is however quite important,” he said. “Hong Kong in our view should be different ‘in fact and feeling.’”

He said additional costs to comply with the “quite broad definition” of state secrets may cause foreign investors to move elsewhere.

A spokesperson of the European Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong told Nikkei Asia in a