Schools and social organizations would be brought into line under the upcoming national security law, according to details of the bill released on Saturday.

Fresh details of the draft law were published in the official Xinhua News Agency, which said the Hong Kong government should “step up control and management of schools and social groups with regards to national security.”

These specifics have coincided with recent comments made by the city’s Education Minister Kevin Yeung, who said the government would strengthen the promotion of national security in schools across Hong Kong. Yeung’s comments were made in an interview aired by the mainland’s state-run broadcaster CCTV.

Yeung said the introduction of the new national security law was a timely one, as 40% of the 9,000 protesters arrested so far in Hong Kong’s year-long social unrest were students. “It is saddening but at the same time alarming,” he said.

Beijing says the new law to be imposed on Hong Kong is to prevent, stop and punish secession, subversion of state power, terrorism and foreign interference in the city.

Yeung said students would be reminded in the future that national security was their “obligation and responsibility,” adding that the new law had played a “positive role” in maintaining Hong Kong’s stability.

Lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen, who represents the education sector, said the new law’s section about schools and social groups was wide in scope but clear in intention. “The sentence appears harsh,” he said, adding that schools seemed to be expected to go further than education and promotion of national security.

“It looks like no ‘social group’’ will be spared,” he said.

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