The Hong Kong government has allocated an additional HK$5bn to a special fund for safeguarding national security, raising the cumulative total to HK$18bn since the measure was created in 2020. The allocation, the third since Beijing imposed the national security law in June 2020, was unveiled Friday when authorities gazetted the government accounts for the 2025-26 fiscal year, Hong Kong Free Press reported, showing the sum as non-recurrent special expenditure.
The fund received an initial HK$8bn allocation in December 2020 and a further HK$5bn in the year ending March 2023, bringing it to HK$13bn before this week's top-up. In response to a Ming Pao enquiry, the Financial Secretary's Office said it would not disclose details of the funding, citing Article 14 of the national security law, and did not say whether the earlier HK$13bn had been depleted, Hong Kong Free Press reported.
Under Article 14, no institution, organisation or individual in Hong Kong may interfere with the work of the Committee for Safeguarding National Security, and information relating to its work is not subject to disclosure. The fund was established in 2020 to finance expenses related to safeguarding national security after the law took effect that June, with the new allocation booked as special funding for non-recurrent expenditure in the gazetted accounts.
The government said in July it would not disclose any details of the special fund in a report to the legislature on its control and management, citing the same provision. Authorities have set up a dedicated accounting and financial unit within the committee's secretariat, reporting directly to the financial secretary and responsible for the fund's revenue, expenditure and financial matters, Hong Kong Free Press reported. The Financial Secretary's Office did not respond to whether the previous HK$13bn had been depleted.
