The Macau Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday passed a local government-drafted bill defining state secrets and regulating their protection in the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR).

The new law will take effect on June 1 next year.

The bill’s outline was passed during a plenary session of the legislature in January this year. The legislature’s 1^st Standing Committee held a raft of meetings to review the bill.

Secretary for Administration and Justice André Cheong Weng Chon attended yesterday’s plenary session when the bill was voted on article-by-article in its second and final reading.

According to the newly amended version of the local national security law, which took effect in late May this year, state secrets are to be regulated by a specific piece of legislation, i.e., the bill which was passed by lawmakers yesterday.

The local national security law punishes the violation of state secrets.

The new law on the protection of state secrets defines state secrets as secret matters concerning national security and interests classified by the central authorities in compliance with the nation’s laws, or by Macau’s chief executive in compliance with this new law, the knowledge of which is limited to certain groups of people during a certain period of time.

The new law on the protection of state secrets will entitle Macau’s chief executive to classify a string of various matters as state secrets if their disclosure may jeopardise national security and interest, such as secret matters concerning the local government’s important decision-making, Macau’s socioeconomic development, its scientific and technological development, activities safeguarding national security in Macau, and local police’s criminal investigations.

Under normal circumstances, according to the new law, classified state secrets can only be kept secret for up to 30 years, depending on the nature and characteristics of the respective secret matters.