Hong Kong: The Beginnings of Repression, Reform, and Integration?

Beijing revealed something about its plans for Hong Kong's future governance on 8 July, when they opened the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government of the PRC in Hong Kong [中华人民共和国中央人民政府驻香港特别行政区维护国家安全公署], hereafter the Hong Kong National Security Office, or Hong Kong NSO.

As noted that day by the South China Morning Post, Beijing chose the Metropark Hotel, opposite Victoria Park, as the site for the Hong Kong NSO. As the Metropark is owned by the China Travel Service, PRC authorities considered the building to be already sufficiently secure to house the effort.

Victoria Park has been the starting point of many anti-Beijing demonstrations over the years. According to the SCMP article, the venue choice was in part intended to telegraph that the organization will operate in an open manner with nothing to hide - including the fact that their officials would not be accountable to anyone in the Hong Kong government, including the police. (1)

In his speech at the 8 July opening ceremony for the Hong Kong NSO, Luo Huining, National Security Affairs advisor to the Hong Kong government, said that the "implementation of Hong Kong’s National Security Law marked a major turning point in Hong Kong, from chaos to governance." [香港国安法公布实施，开启了香港由乱到治的重大转折] (2)

Besides this expression of urgency by Beijing to rectify the situation in Hong Kong, the importance of the Hong Kong National Security Law and the NSO's role was partly outlined a few days earlier in a meeting at the PRC Ministry of State Security chaired by its Party Secretary and Minister, Chen Wenqing [陈文清]. Chen asserted that the National Security Law is the "most significant measure taken by the Central Government to handle Hong Kong affairs since the return" of the former Crown Colony to China. He added that "the Hong Kong National Security Law radically reforms the vulnerabilities" in maintaining national security in the Hong Kong SAR. [香港国安法正本清源，堵塞了香港特别行政区在维护国家安全方面存在的漏洞] (3)

This may indicate that the National Security Law is considered complete and may not be amended for the foreseeable future.

Some priorities for the NSO's work may be revealed in the choice of its senior management, and in the presence at the 8 July ceremony of the senior Ministry of Public Security (MPS) official for internal political security, 1st Bureau Chief Chen Siyuan [陈思源]. Chen did not make remarks but posed for a photo in front of the NSO with its chief, Zheng Yanxiong [郑雁雄], a Cantonese speaking senior CCP cadre who is best known for suppressing the 2011 Wukan Uprising.

Li Jiangjiu and Sun Qingye [李江舟、孙青野] are Zheng's deputies. Li also hails from the MPS 1st Bureau, charged with hunting down political dissidents, unapproved religious organizations including the Falun Gong and underground Christian churches, and terrorists. MPS has taken a greater counterintelligence role in recent times, and Li's remit may, therefore, be wider than just political security.

In any case, these management choices may indicate the determination of the CCP to thoroughly change Hong Kong and move it closer to being like a mainland city, overcoming opposition, cultivating collaborators, and more fully integrating Hong Kong into the mainland.

Sun Qingye, the other deputy to Zheng and a senior officer in the Ministry of State Security (MSS), made his first public appearance, and appearance in a photo, in the 8 July ceremony. He is an unknown, with almost no profile available on the internet. MSS hunts spies at home and seeks foreign intelligence abroad; it remains to be seen if Sun will lead a spycatching operation or an intelligence effort aimed at foreigners living in and passing through Hong Kong, or both.

Ma Yinming [馬寅明] also posed with the leaders of the NSO and was reported to be its disciplinary head, assigned there from the CCP's internal anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Discipline Inspection Commission (CCDI). Curiously, there seems to be no mention of him in the mainland press - not even in an article on CCDI's website reporting the 8 July ceremony.

Like Sun Qingye, Ma's background is unknown. A source indicates that he will only work inside the NSO, and not venture out in Hong Kong society, digging up the same sort of corruption cases that CCDI is known for on the mainland. If that is the case, by highlighting his presence on the NSO's management staff, Beijing may be signaling that it will brook no attempts to bribe or otherwise compromise the efforts of the officers in this body - that will probably have greater interactions with Hong Kong society than other PRC institutions in Hong Kong.

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Notes:

(1) "China's home security chief attends Hong Kong national security office opening", South China Morning Post, 8 July 2020. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3092358/chinas-home-security-chief-attends-hong-kong-national-security

(2) https://www.xinhuanet.com/gangao/2020-07/08/c_1126210956.htm

(3) 国家安全部：香港国安法依法治港 坚决贯彻党中央重大决策部署 [Ministry of State Security: Hong Kong’s National Security Law governs it according to the law]. People.cn, 5 July 2020, 20:00, https://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2020/0705/c1001-31771607.html