Speaking on RTHK’s Backchat programme to mark the upcoming fifth anniversary of the promulgation and implementation of the law, Grenville Cross, senior counsel and former director of public prosecutions of the SAR, said Hong Kong is now primed to focus on development.
“The One Country Two Systems [principle] is secure and is operating in the way its architects originally intended. Even though we’ve been through a difficult time, nonetheless, with the help of various institutions in Hong Kong, the new arrangements have been embedded in and we now have a secure Hong Kong which can look confidently to the future,” Cross said.
Executive councillor and barrister Ronny Tong told the same programme that the vast majority of people who have been charged under the law are linked to the 2019 unrest.
He believes the number of national security-related arrests will continue to go down over time.
“Of course, it will be foolish to think there wouldn’t be any prosecutions under the national security laws… but I would like to think the number would decline rapidly as we move away from 2019,” he said.
“Therefore people would realise immediately that the introduction of national security laws in Hong Kong is not something to worry about – it doesn’t actually deal with anything that we do in everyday life.”
The sentiment was shared by lawmaker Priscilla Leung, who also pointed out the need to strengthen security safeguards in areas such as technology and finance going forward.
“We really rely on very good advice and governing and safeguards, [to boost] our security guard for this kind of intangible information, intangible facilities,” she stressed.
