Photo: Xinhua

China's draft national security law for Hong Kong has been submitted for deliberation to the 19th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress, which opened on Thursday.

The draft national security law makes clear provisions on preventing, stopping and punishing four types of criminal acts in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region - secessionism, subversion of state power, terrorist activities and collusion with foreign forces to endanger national security. 

The draft is an important piece of legislation aimed at implementing the spirit of the NPC's decision on Establishing and Improving the Legal System and Enforcement Mechanisms for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to Safeguard National Security. 

Ahead of the 19th session, Yue Zhongming, spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, said speeding up the formulation of related Hong Kong national security laws has been added to the NPC Standing Committee's 2020 work plan. 

Tian Feilong, a Hong Kong affairs expert at Beihang University in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday that this is the first step of the three deliberations stipulated by the Legislation Law, and the draft is likely to go through one or two more deliberations before being submitted for a vote given the law's impact and urgency.

Normally, drafts go through three deliberations, but it could be reduced to two deliberations for drafts that have small differences from legislators and one deliberation for drafts only targeting a single issue, Tian said.

Li Xiaobing, an expert on Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan from Nankai University in Tianjin, told the Global Times on Thursday that the legislation process could still be accelerated through additional meetings even following the normal procedure of undergoing three deliberations.