Security Secretary Wong Sio Chak assured today (Friday) that the proposed amendment to the local National Security Law will be sent to the Legislative Assembly this year, but with the changes subject to public consultation .

Wong made the comments on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the National Security Education Exhibition, which opened to the public today at the Forum Macau complex.

The secretary also said that currently, the pandemic is the biggest threat facing the country and Macau in terms of national security.

According to the 2022 political address document, the SAR will promote the “implementation and improvement of the legal framework for the defense of state security in Macao and its enforcement mechanism”, “safeguard the full governing power of the central government over the Macau SAR”, and “to defend the sovereignty, security and development interests of the country and to maintain the general stability of Macau society”.

The SAR’s first national security law, implemented in 2009 after a public consultation process, prohibits seven crimes: treason, secession, sedition, subversion, theft of state secrets, activities of political organizations foreigners in the city and establishing links with local authorities. body.

Secretary Wong said today (Friday) that the National Security Act 2009 was prepared in accordance with the provisions of Article 23 of the Basic Law and the actual situation at the time, containing only ” substantive rights, without any adjective rights”.

Substantive rights imply a right to the substance of being human rather than a right to a procedure to enforce that right, which is defined by procedural law, while procedural law, also called adjective law, governs the mechanism of courts and the methods by which the State and the individual assert their rights in several courts.

Wong explained that in view of the execution of the law, the adjective law is fundamental, as it regulates the whole procedure of the execution of the criminal trial, as well as the assignment of various forms of investigation to the police, pointing out that this revision add content concerning the right of the adjective.

A high-level Macau National Security Committee was also established in 2018 to oversee related issues, with its members including the city’s chief executive, Ho Iat Seng, as well as its heads of justice, security, of the police and the director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government of the SAR, Fu Ziying.

After holding its first-ever meeting earlier this month, Fu said the city “continues to face many challenges in defending state security”, along with “interference and infiltration by outside forces continue to exist”. .

The adviser for national security affairs and director of the Chinese central government’s liaison office in Macau warned that “interference and infiltration by outside forces continues” in the SAR.

In a speech today, Fu added that the central government bears the basic responsibility for national security affairs in Macao, while the Macao SAR government bears the constitutional responsibility of defending national security.

In neighboring Hong Kong, central authorities enacted a national security law in late June 2020 after a year of widespread protests in Hong Kong.

The National People’s Congress (NPC) passed the law unanimously on June 30, 2020, and listed it in Schedule III of the Basic Law, with the law enacted without public consultation and details not disclosed. one hour before its entry into force.

The new law targets terrorism, subversion, secession and collusion with foreign forces and establishes extensive infrastructure in the city, including a security committee that includes the chief executive of Hong Kong and the highest representative of Beijing.

A previous push for the city to introduce its own safety legislation was dropped after mass protests in 2003.