The New People’s Party has played a constructive role in enacting legislation for Article 23 of the Basic Law and in safeguarding national security in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Chairperson Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said at a reception on Saturday marking the NPP’s 13th anniversary.  

The event was attended by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, Deputy Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR, He Jing, as well as some 900 political elites, celebrities and professionals.

Ip, who’s also convenor of the Executive Council and legislator, was the SAR government official in charge of promoting the Article 23 legislation in 2003, while Lai Tung-kwok, the NPP’s executive vice-chairman, was a former secretary for security. 

Both said they had joined the Legislative Council’s Bills Committee on Safeguarding National Security Bill because they felt a strong sense of responsibility to get the bill passed into law. They had submitted more than 2,000 questions and amendments, of which 90 were accepted by the SAR government, making the NPP one of the key parts of the legislative process.

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Ip and Lai also held a series of discussions with government departments, including the Immigration Department and the Correctional Services Department, as well as primary and secondary school principals, to explain the bill. The legislation made the NPP a major keyword on the Internet concerning the enactment of national security laws in Hong Kong, with about 1.18 million search results in the Google search engine.

At present, six of the 90 seats in the SAR’s legislature are held by NPP members, and 26 of the city’s 470 district councilors are from the party. Serving the community in a feasible and pragmatic way has helped shape the NPP’s exuberant, energetic and proactive culture - a miniature and exemplar of Hong Kong’s “can do spirit”.  

In May this year, Ip and her think-tank, the Savantas Policy Institute, organized the inaugural Global Prosperity Summit 2024, which is said to “exemplify President Xi Jinping’s call for people-to-people diplomacy”. The next summit is expected to be held in 2025, but the NPP declined to give a timetable, saying it’s still premature for details.

By emphasizing civil diplomacy, the SAR will succeed in building its image and fulfilling its role as a facilitator and nexus between the nation and the world, Ip said.

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As the SPI prepares for the 2025 Global Prosperity Summit, the NPP will have to gear itself up for next year’s LegCo elections.