Keywords and 'made-simple' Summary of the National Security (Legislative Provisions) Bill
(3rd edition – Treason)

Following on "foreign armed forces 外來武裝部隊 " in treason 叛國, I would like to talk about "assisting public enemy" in this issue.

But first of all we need to know who the public enemy is. Some of you wrote to me raising concern over the definition of public enemy. Would our public enemy be the same as the PRC's public enemy?

In the proposed law, public enemy at war with the People's Republic of China 與中華人民共和國交戰的公敵 means:
i. the government of a foreign country at war with the People's Republic of China; or
ii. foreign armed forces at war with the People's Republic of China.

While a state of war exists when:
i. open armed conflict between armed forces is occurring; or
ii. war has been publicly declared, and "at war 交戰" is to be construed accordingly.

The government emphasized that a person criticizing the PRC should not be considered as a public enemy in this case, since public enemy should be a government or foreign armed forces, and they should be at war with the PRC to fall into this category.

According to the bill, a Chinese national commits treason if he assists any public enemy at war with the PRC by doing any act with intent to prejudice the position of the PRC in the war.

The followings are precedents of "giving aid and comfort to" an enemy –
- joins the enemies in acts of hostility against the country;
- raises troops for the enemy;
- whilst a state of war exists, endeavours in an enemy country to persuade prisoners of war in that enemy country to join the armed forces of the enemy;
- takes part in an attempt to land arms and ammunition in any part of the country for use of the enemy;
- delivers up the castle, forts or ships of war to the enemies through treachery or in combination with them;
- detains the castles, etc from the Sovereign if it is done in confederacy with the enemy; and
- sends money, arms, intelligence of the like to the enemies.

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Note: Credit is due to the Hon Bernard Chan for sharing these information with me.

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