The Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Abbreviation: CPGNSO; ) is a state security agency established by the

Hong Kong national security law The Hong Kong national security law, officially the Law of the People's Republic of China on Safeguarding National Security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a piece of national security legislation concerning Hong Kong. It ...

. The office is headed by director

Zheng Yanxiong Zheng Yanxiong (; born 25 August 1963) is a Chinese politician currently serving as director of the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government in Hong Kong. Previously, he was the director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security ...

and entirely staffed by mainland officials. The office is a part of and funded by the

Central People's Government The State Council, constitutionally synonymous with the Central People's Government since 1954 (particularly in relation to local governments), is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the p ...

(State Council) of China and is not subject to Hong Kong jurisdiction.

History

The CPGNSO was established on 1 July 2020 as a result of the promulgation of the

. The law was, in contrast with the regular legislative process of the region, not passed by the local Legislative Council, but by the

Standing Committee of the National People's Congress The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPCSC) is the permanent body of the National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is the highest organ of state po ...

in Beijing. On 3 July 2020 the

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...

appointed

as director of the organisation, and

Li Jiangzhou Li Jiangzhou (; born January 1968 in Anhui, China) is a deputy director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. He is a former public security officer and has worked in the liaison office since 2016. Sanctions On 9 Novem ...

and

Sun Qingye Sun Qingye, also known as Sun Wenqing (born 1965), is the deputy head of the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the CPG in the HKSAR. Sun has a background working in the Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China. ...

as deputy heads. Following the arrest of 53 pro-democracy figures in January 2021, the Office expressed support for the operation and singled out

Benny Tai Benny Tai Yiu-ting (; born 12 July 1964) is a Hong Kong legal scholar, political figure, and democracy activist. He was an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong. From 2013, Tai launched and is known for his initiation of ...

. In February 2021, Zheng Zehui and Deng Jianwei were added to the office as bureau chiefs.

Headquarters

On 7 July 2020 the location of the CPGNSO temporary headquarters was announced. The Office, together with its employees' living quarters, is located in the Metropark Hotel Causeway Bay building. The hotel replaced by the CPGNSO was owned by

China Travel Service The China Travel Service (Abbreviation: CTS; ) is the tourism and travel agency of the government of the People's Republic of China. It was established on 19 November 1949 tasked with marketing China to the rest of the world and to promote and de ...

(a tourism agency previously accused of assisting Chinese authorities in

doxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information about an individual or organization, usually via the internet. Historically, the term has been used interchangeably to refer to both the aggregation of this i ...

local pro-democracy journalists and activists). After the office opened on 8 July 2020, the building's floor plans were removed from publicly accessible records. On April 19, 2021, the Office announced that it was taking over the Island Pacific Hotel in

Sai Ying Pun Sai Ying Pun is an area in Western District, on Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. It is administratively part of the Central and Western District. Etymology In Cantonese, ''Sai'' () means "west" and ''Ying Pun'' () means "camp", especially a ...

as an additional work site. On April 23, 2021, it was announced that a new building for the office's use will be constructed at

Tai Kok Tsui Tai Kok Tsui is an area west of Mong Kok in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The mixed land use of industrial and residential is present in the old area. The Cosmopolitan Dock and oil depots were previously located there. Blocks of high-rise residential b ...

at a cost of HKD$8 million. The future site is around and is classified within areas zoned "Government, Institution or Community" on the South West Kowloon Outline Zoning Plan. In November 2022, the CPGNSO bought a 7,171 sqft 5-bedroom mansion in Beacon Hill for HK$508 million.

Legal authority

For the office to be allowed to exercise its jurisdiction on a case, either the office itself or the

Government of Hong Kong The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the executive authorities of Hong Kong SAR. It was formed on 1 July 1997 in accordance with the Sino-Br ...

need to request approval from the Central People's Government (CPG). Statutorily, the office is only to be granted jurisdiction in cases of complexity due to the presence of foreign or external elements, inability of the regional government to enforce the law, or a major and imminent threat to national security. However, the structuring of the approval process effectively means that the CPG can, since it also administers the CPGNSO, grant its organ jurisdiction at its own discretion, without legal interference from Hong Kong regional authorities. The Hong Kong Secretary for Justice has stated that a suspect's right to engage a lawyer registered to practice in Hong Kong, but not in Mainland China, will be determined through the application of Mainland law. When the CPGNSO has been granted jurisdiction to investigate a case, the

Supreme People's Procuratorate The Supreme People's Procuratorate () is the highest national agency responsible for legal prosecution and investigation in the People's Republic of China. Conceived initially in 1949 as the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office, the agency was r ...

decides which body prosecutes the case, and the

Supreme People's Court The Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China (SPC; ) is the highest court of the People's Republic of China. It hears appeals of cases from the high people's courts and is the trial court for cases about matters of national ...

decides which court is to adjudicate it. In these cases, procedural matters are governed by PRC law, including the

Criminal Procedure Law Criminal procedure is the adjudication process of the criminal law. While criminal procedure differs dramatically by jurisdiction, the process generally begins with a formal criminal charge with the person on trial either being free on bail or i ...

. This leads to a lack of

judicial independence Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...

, the absence of the

right to remain silent The right to silence is a legal principle which guarantees any individual the right to refuse to answer questions from law enforcement officers or court officials. It is a legal right recognized, explicitly or by convention, in many of the worl ...

, the possibility of incommunicado detention, and significant restriction of the

right to counsel In criminal law, the right to counsel means a defendant has a legal right to have the assistance of counsel (i.e., lawyers) and, if the defendant cannot afford a lawyer, requires that the government appoint one or pay the defendant's legal exp ...

Immunity

The office and its staff are not subject to Hong Kong jurisdiction. Furthermore, on-duty holders of identification or certification documents issued by the office are immune from inspection, search and detention by Hong Kong law enforcement officers.

Sanctioning of staff by the United States

Office director Zheng Yanxiong was sanctioned by the

United States Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and t ...

in August 2020 pursuant to the Normalization Executive Order (

Executive Order 13936 Executive Order 13936, entitled "The President’s Executive Order on Hong Kong Normalization", is an executive order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on July 14, 2020. On the same day Trump had signed into law Hong Kong Autonomy Act, one ...

). The order, which had been issued by US President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

on 14 July, had been a response to the imposition of the national security law. Deputy director Li Jiangzhou was sanctioned by the US on 9 November. Deputy director Sun Qingye was sanctioned by the US on 15 January 2021.

References