Hong Kong police can now demand that people suspected of breaching the city’s national security law provide mobile phone or computer passwords in a further crackdown on dissent.
Refusing to comply could lead to up to one year’s jail and a fine of up to HK$100,000 ($12,773) while providing false or misleading information could bring up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to HK$500,000.
The city government yesterday gazetted the new amendments to the implementation rules of the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, using powers to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature.
Officials will brief legislators today, a government statement said.
The sweeping law punishes acts, including subversion and collusion with foreign forces, with up to life imprisonment.
It sparked criticism from Western governments and rights groups but Beijing and Hong Kong officials said it was needed to restore stability after the city was rocked by months of pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The new amendments empower police to require a person under investigation suspected of endangering national security to provide any password or decryption method for electronic devices and to provide the police ‘any reasonable and necessary information or assistance’.
The new amendments also empower customs officers to seize items that are deemed to have ‘seditious intention’, regardless of whether any person has been arrested for an offence endangering national security because of the items.