The continued implementation of the “one country, two systems” model in Hong Kong will only highlight rising friction with Beijing over issues on division of power pertaining to foreign affairs, a report by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
The “one country, two systems” model refers to the formula governing the return of the former British colony to Chinese rule after 1997, in which Hong Kong was allowed to keep its capitalist economy and British common law tradition for 50 years, while Beijing controls all foreign and defense policy.
INDEPENDENCE
The MAC report said that a number of incidents in the past year showed not only the controversy over the division of power between Hong Kong and Beijing, but also how it had affected and undermined the Hong Kong judiciary’s independence.
As an example, the report cited the bungled rescue attempt during the hostage crisis in August last year in Manila in which eight Hong Kong tourists were killed.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s (曾蔭權) attempt to contact Philippine President Benigno Aquino III during the crisis sparked debates within Hong Kong.
The report said some had criticized Tsang, saying he was not the leader of a nation and had no authority to make such calls, while others said Tsang’s conduct was in keeping with how a “self--governing, subordinate sovereignty” should act.
The MAC report also cited two instances of international commercial litigation cases involving Chinese government-owned corporations in the past year.
During the litigation process, the corporations said that Hong Kong’s judicial system inherited the same power from the British colonial period and that as such, it had no jurisdiction over the corporations.
The corporations also said transactions between the corporations with foreign national governments operated on a “nation-to-nation” basis, which was also outside the jurisdiction of Hong Kong’s Special Administrative Region (SAR) government.
Hong Kong filed a petition with China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) for an explanation of the Basic Law, or the constitutional document of the Hong Kong SAR.
THREAT
However, Beijing’s representative organization in Hong Kong — the Office of the Commissioner of the People’s Republic of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs — three times sent notices to Hong Kong’s judicial courts asking it not to take the case as it would hurt Chinese diplomatic relations and threaten the safety of Chinese property overseas.
The report incorporated similar warnings previously presented by Chinese academics, who said that the “one country, two systems” model was implemented in Hong Kong and Macau to keep their competitive edge and unique characteristics, and that it should not overtly become “inland-ized (內地化)” as a result of increasing exchanges with the mainland.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
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