Senior Chinese official says authorities focusing on extra Hong Kong reforms, including judiciary
17 November, 2020
A good senior Chinese official said on Tuesday (Nov 17) that authorities will work on reforms linked to Hong Kong's mini-constitution, including its judicial system.
Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of China's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Business office, told a good legal summit found in the global financial hub that movements to "great" the legal system found in Hong Kong would not undermine judicial independence.
The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the promise of a higher amount of autonomy under a "one country, two systems" agreement that guaranteed freedoms unavailable in China and an unbiased judiciary.
But after prolonged anti-government and anti-China protests this past year, Beijing introduced a sweeping nationwide security laws on Jun 30 that critics say aims to quash dissent. Supporters say it restores balance in China's most restive city.
"We need to see the Basic Laws as a thing that is alive so we are able to interpret the essential Law whenever required," said Zhang, referring to Hong Kong's mini-constitution, adding that authorities want to push through more "Basic Law-related work".
Zhang said that the task was linked to "oath optimisation" and "qualification screening" for civil servants, national education, and judicial reform. He didn't elaborate.
Beneath the new security legislation, civil servants must pledge allegiance to Hong Kong and the essential Law.
Zhang said the techniques were aimed to improve "wrongful activities" and covers loopholes.
"Right now is time to sort out what's true and what's false," Zhang said, stating that people who do not recognise the "motherland" or perhaps threaten the country's national secureness, do not fall in line with the Basic Law.
The independence of Hong Kong's judicial system sometimes appears as crucial for the city to thrive as a finance hub acting as an interface between China's closed capital system and all of those other world.
Zhang's comments come after Beijing passed a resolution the other day to empower Hong Kong authorities to disqualify lawmakers considered a threat to national reliability without having to go through courts.
Hong Kong then immediately expelled four legislators, prompting opposition pro-democracy lawmakers to resign en masse on protest.
"Only those people who are patriotic should be set up, otherwise they must be removed from the machine," Zhang said.
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