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OO RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHHK #0232/01 0400016
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 090016Z FEB 09
FM AMCONSUL HONG KONG
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6834
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HONG KONG 000232 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/CM; ALSO FOR DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/05/2019 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM MC CH
SUBJECT: MACAU ARTICLE 23 HEADS FOR FINAL VOTE WITHOUT 
MAJOR REVISION 
 
REF: 08 HONG KONG 2258 
 
Classified By: Consul General Joe Donovan for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary:  The Macau Government submitted a revised 
Article 23 Bill text to the Legislative Assembly February 3. 
The minimum sentences for treason, splittism and subversion 
have been lowered to ten years' imprisonment from fifteen 
years.  However, the government and Legislative Assembly have 
rejected, apparently without substantive consideration, 
revisions proposed by democratic New Macau Association 
legislators January 19.  NMA's revisions would have clarified 
provisions on "preparatory acts", more clearly linked alleged 
incitement charges to actual crimes, and provided an explicit 
public interest defense for journalists revealing classified 
information.  The bill is expected to come up for a final 
vote either the week of February 9 or the week following, and 
should pass as now written.  End summary. 
 
--------------- 
Nearing the End 
--------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The revised text submitted by the Macau government 
to the Legislative Assembly (LA) February 3 likely represents 
the bill which will become law.  As widely reported in the 
media, the government accepted recommendations from the LA 
Second Standing Committee (which is reviewing the bill) to 
lower the minimum sentence for treason, splitting the 
country, and subversion against the central people's 
government from fifteen to ten years' imprisonment. 
Advocates held this put the penalty in line with similar 
offenses under Mainland law (although the maximum penalty in 
Macau is twenty-five years, while on the Mainland it is life 
imprisonment).  Another amendment changes the effective date 
of the law to the day after its publication, rather than 
thirty days following publication as stated in the December 
text.  The remaining changes are largely technical fixes 
which do not change the scope of the law. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Second Standing Committee Chair Fong Chi-keong, of 
the pro-government General Union for the Good of Macau, has 
predicted in the press that the bill will go to a vote 
sometime between February 9-20.  The bill is expected to pass 
easily.  Of 29 legislators, only Antonio Ng and Au Kam-san of 
the proto-democratic New Macau Association (NMA) opposed the 
text in its initial reading in the LA, with 
democratic-leaning civil service union rep Jose Coutinho 
abstaining. 
 
------------------- 
Amendments Rejected 
------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) In an open letter to the Legislative Assembly 
January 19 -- the only other substantive revisions proposed 
during the LA's deliberations -- NMA's Ng and Au called for 
eight specific changes to the text.  They are: 
 
--  Remove "jeopardize transportation security or 
communication security" from the list of "other serious 
illegal methods" in describing offenses under the law.  NMA 
argued that ordinary protests frequently disrupt normal 
transport, and feared this language could be used to 
criminalize peaceful marches; 
 
--  Either clarify the threshold at which "preparatory acts" 
become criminal, or delete the language; 
 
--  Limit the crime of incitement to only those cases in 
which "open and direct" incitement leads immediately and 
directly to a criminal act; 
 
--  Specify at Article IV (Incitement to Insurrection) that 
"non-violent methods of putting forth political advocacy or 
academic discussion do not fall under the scope of this law;" 
 
--  Remove the term "pry into" (ci tan) as a criminal means 
of acquiring state secrets at Article V (Theft of State 
Secrets); 
 
--  Also at Article V, require that a person who stole or 
purchased a state secret did so with full knowledge of the 
secret and consequently harmed national security; 
 
--  Add specific "public interest" and "public's right to 
know" defenses to Article V offenses; and 
 
--  Change Article V, Section 2 language on foreign support 
of the theft of state secrets from "receive from a government 
 
HONG KONG 00000232  002 OF 002 
 
 
outside the Macau SAR" to "receive from the government of a 
foreign country" (to eliminate Hong Kong, Taiwan and the 
Mainland.) 
 
¶5. (C) Chairman Fong had told the press as early as January 
13 that "I don't think there is much room to amend the bill." 
 He nevertheless stated on January 21 (two days after NMA's 
letter was issued) that all views would be reflected in the 
committee's report to the government (presumably sent prior 
to the issuance of the revised text February 3).  The 
proposals found no more support in the government than in the 
LA, and none were adopted in the revised text.  Fong was 
quoted February 3 as dismissing the NMA proposals, saying 
"mainstream views of society and the Standing Committee" 
viewed them as "redundant". 
 
¶6. (C) A Macau academic contact told us independent weekly 
San Pou supported the NMA proposals, while pro-Beijing daily 
San Wa Ou criticized NMA; any other media reporting was 
fact-based (with NMA receiving coverage at least in the 
English-language papers).  NMA's Au and Ng also confirmed by 
e-mail their proposals had been rejected, with Au warning, 
"the devil remains in the detail, foreshadowing the 
possibility for the police to abuse their power and for the 
government to deal with dissidents." 
DONOVAN