The Macau government today launched a 45-day public consultation on the changes to the National Security Law approved in February 2009.
National Security Secretary Wong Sio Chak said at a press conference today that the concept of state secrets stipulated in the revised National Security Law will be defined as a future secrecy law.
Wong Shio Chak also said Protecting national security is the path to Macau’s economic development.
At today’s press conference, the security secretary argued that there is foreign interference in Macau and that national security laws need to be adjusted to deal with it.
At a press conference, Wong Sio Chak said Macau authorities were wary of foreign intervention, as happened in neighboring areas in 2014 and 2019, as in Hong Kong, adding that Macau’s registered 8,000 of the association. , only one has a political nature.
The security secretary has ensured that individuals who may have violated the National Security Act before the amendments went into effect will not be punished. In other words, there is no retroactivity for crimes committed prior to the amendment of this legal framework.
“We will not punish those who committed crimes before the law was changed,” said U Wong Sio Chak, adding that the government “cannot hold those who committed crimes before to accountability.”
According to the government, the amendment to the National Security Law aims to improve the text currently in force on the crimes of “separation from the state,” “subversion of the Central People’s Government,” “sedition,” and “exclusion of the state.” purpose. national secret”.
Wong gives details and definitions of “state secrets”, It will be defined in another secrecy law proposed by the government from time to time.
“If judges in national security cases are confused about what constitutes a ‘national secret,’ they can ask the central government through the Macau government,” he said.
Wong Sio Chak also said that most national security trials are open to the public, and only some are held partially or completely behind closed doors if the judge determines that the content concerns state secrets. said it is.
According to the new text, the crime of overthrowing the central people’s government has been renamed the crime of overthrowing state political power, and refers not only to the state, but to all organs of central political power.
Subversion includes not only violent acts but also illegal non-violent acts, says the new law.
In another crime, incitement, the proposal also specifies inciting a third party to commit acts of rebellion that undermine national stability.
The so-called “deduction of state secrets” will be changed to “violation of state secrets.”
The government will also adjust the categorization of criminals, criminalize all organizations or entities instead of political organizations or entities, and replace the designation “foreigners” with “from outside the Macau Special Administrative Region”.
The document also considers “a Macau political organization or affiliated entity establishing a relationship with a foreign political organization or affiliated entity in order to commit acts contrary to national security.”
The new law also considers the punishment of individuals who have acted against national security, even outside of Macau.
The new law also introduces measures for “interception of information and communications”.
Law enforcement agencies may obtain communication records and user data directly from telecommunications carriers or network communication service providers, according to a consultation document published Monday and cited by Radio Macao.
The new law also introduces “temporary immigration restrictions,” which can only be implemented by judges, with the aim of allowing suspects to cooperate with investigations and evidence gathering in a relatively short period of time.
