A national reunification law, which is under consideration and expected to apply to Hong Kong, shall not have much impact on the city, local political figures said yesterday.

"I don't see the reunification law will have any impact on Hong Kong at the moment," said Ip Kwok-him, vice-chairman of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong.

He added that the law would become a concern only when some people in Hong Kong attempted to split the city from the country.

Selina Chow, vice-chairperson of the Liberal Party, agreed and said the law would mainly target the Taiwan question.

But she said the National People's Congress should pay attention to concerns of Hong Kong people on the issue.

Maria Tam, a local NPC delegate, said that people should not speculate about the law's impact on Hong Kong as it was still at an early stage of establishment.

A member of the NPC's Law Committee revealed yesterday that China is considering drafting the law which will also be applied to Hong Kong.

The legislation aims to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Xin Chunying told reporters after a press conference in Beijing.

"Any acts which attempt to break up the country should be subjected to the reunification law," Cable TV quoted Xin as saying.

She indicated that the law would also apply to Hong Kong as no exception should be made concerning acts of splitting the country.

The committee is now soliciting views from across the country on the national law, but has not defined the content nor established a timetable for enactment.

Hong Kong legislator Martin Lee, former chairman of the Democratic Party, said there was no need to apply the law to the SAR as "no one in Hong Kong wants to seek independence from China".

But Wang Zhenmin, deputy dean of law at Tsinghua University, said that the law would aim to not only realize reunification with Taiwan, but also maintain the nation's territorial integrity, and Hong Kong should be covered.

Currently six national laws, including Resolution on the Capital, Calendar, National Anthem and National Flag of the PRC are applied in Hong Kong, according to annex III of the Basic Law.

Meanwhile, Article 18 states that the Standing Committee of NPC may add to or delete from the list of laws listed in Annex III.

Laws listed in Annex III shall be confined to those relating to defence and foreign affairs as well as other matters outside the limits of the autonomy of Hong Kong as specified by the Basic Law.

The proposed national reunification law has become a hot topic after Premier Wen Jiabao said during his trip to Europe early this month that the country would seriously consider drafting the law.

In a meeting with Chinese living in England on May 10, he said the proposal that the NPC should draft and adopt a reunification law to prevent Taiwan from edging towards independence "is very important".

(HK Edition 05/22/2004 page2)