49. An area of particular sensitivity where the Central Authorities will, inevitably, seek to exercise a role in the SAR is in the field of security. Defence is, of course, a specific responsibility reserved to the Central Authorities by the Basic Law, but the requirement that the members of the military forces stationed in Hong Kong shall abide by the laws of the SAR does not exclude the possibility of the assertion by the military authorities of a doctrine of act of state in respect of the official activities of the garrison or that, since defence falls outside the autonomy of the SAR, such activities are not to be enquired into by the judicial or other authorities of the SAR.
Further, defence is not necessarily to be confined to external defence; it is legitimate to assert that "defence" includes internal defence, and it would be difficult to deny that internal defence and security is a matter which is capable of affecting the nation as a whole. Notwithstanding the responsibilities of the SAR for the maintenance of public order, the constant reiteration of. Chinese suspicions of Hong Kong being used as a base for subversion against the mainland and threats of intervention in Hong Kong are a clear indication that the Central Authorities will assert an active role in matters of internal security in the SAR. One aspect of this is that the Standing Committee of the NPC is likely to be particularly critical of the way in which the SAR carries out its obligation, under article 23 of the Basic Law, to enact laws to prohibit "acts of treason, secession, sedition subversion against the Central People's Government" etc., giving rise, as noted above, to the possibility of a conflict between action under article 23 and the fundamental rights Chapter of the Basic Law.
50. There is also the consideration that a high degree of autonomy is not autonomy and that the existing provisions of
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