Hong Kong yesterday introduced the draft bill of a new national security law that includes life sentences for major offences such as treason and insurrection.

The bill lists five new categories of offences -- treason, insurrection, espionage and theft of state secrets, sabotaging national security and external interference.

Authorities have proposed life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for treason, insurrection, sabotage endangering national security, and incitement of members of China's armed forces to mutiny.

The bill also reworks Hong Kong's colonial-era crime of "sedition" to cover inciting hatred against China's Communist leadership and socialist system while upping the maximum penalty from two years to 10 years.