The Hong Kong government announced a new Budget, disclosing for the first Time that the cost of national security reached HK$8 billion. However, this one-off appropriation, the Hong Kong government, uncharacteristically, refused to announce specific line items, not even staffing. Some scholars believe that the Hong Kong government has actually applied the concept of national security on the mainland to Hong Kong society.
After the implementation of the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law on July 1 last year, a large number of mainland national security personnel stationed in Hong Kong, due to the large number of people directly rented a Chinese-funded hotel in Hong Kong as office space, the former Legislative Council pro-democracy Members have been asking the government, the actual expenses of this group of national security personnel by who is responsible, the government has not responded. In the past six months, the National Security Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force has been making arrests throughout the territory and has arrested a large number of pro-democracy activists.
The “Summary of Estimates of Expenditure” in the budget states that the Hong Kong government’s expenditure on maintaining national security “shall, subject to the approval of the Chief Executive, be financed from the general revenue and approved by the Financial Secretary in accordance with the National Security Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. subject to the provisions of the relevant laws in force in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. This appropriation of $8 billion is the aforementioned special provision to cover expenses relating to the maintenance of national security in the coming years.”
A number of reporters asked Financial Secretary Paul Chan at the press conference about the specific expenditure of $8 billion, he stressed that it is absolutely open and transparent, but he did not disclose the details throughout the press conference.
Paul Chan : “In the development of national security expenditure, of course, there is a list of what people need, what is the preparation, what to do, and after this budget is proposed, the National Security Council has also looked at, approved by the Chief Executive, the process of course I have participated, also have the responsibility to participate, other details here is not convenient to say more.”
Comment: The purpose of announcing the national security fee is to create intimidation to the public
Hong Kong current affairs commentator Liu Ruishao pointed out to this station, in the absence of real supervision and constraints, it is difficult for the public to know the specific use of $ 8 billion, the mainland has never disclosed the national security expenses, and the annual cost of maintaining stability are higher than the military, I believe the Hong Kong government has moved the mainland set of national security concepts to Hong Kong. He also believes that the first announcement of the national security expenses, is to create intimidation to the public.
Liu Ruishao said: “Because it is not transparent, the money is how to use, is the Hong Kong police National Security Division with? Or the mainland’s National Security Office? No one knows, but in the case of Hong Kong or China’s political structure, it must be mixed up.
People just need to have a concept that it turns out that it spends more money against the people than against foreign countries, and there is no way to refine how much money it uses, because this is the thinking of the feudal dynasty.”
8 billion to employ about 5,9000 public security officers per year
The outside world is concerned about how the $8 billion national security fee is formulated and how much it actually is. Compared to the latest expenditure budget of each Hong Kong disciplinary forces this year, there are 30,000 establishment of the Police Department for 25 billion. 10,000 establishment of the Fire Services Department budget for 7.9 billion; 7,000 Customs and Excise Department for 5.39 billion; 6,500 Correctional Services Department for 4.7 billion. However, it is difficult to make a single comparison because the $8 billion for national security is for “future years”. If the population of Hong Kong is about 7.5 million people, each Hong Kong citizen contributes more than HK$1,000 to the $8 billion national security cost.
Since Article 16 of the National Security Law stipulates that the Police Department can hire personnel from outside Hong Kong to maintain the national security sector, if we estimate that the monthly salary of a Shenzhen public security officer starts at about $11,300, the $8 billion can employ about 5,9000 Shenzhen public security officers per year.
As the implementation and enforcement of the national security law of the decision-making department of the Security Bureau, the next year’s budget expenditure of $1.21 billion, compared with the previous year’s $890 million a significant increase of 35.7%.
As for the Department of Justice, which is responsible for prosecution work, the annual budget expenditure is $2.5 billion, also increased significantly by 30%.
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