Inside Out | Four amazing things I learned about China’s top leadership this week
China’s leading legal scholar Wang Zhenmin provided unique insight into the thinking of the inner circle of senior leaders in Beijing
Not in jest, I often say the clearest defining difference between the United States and China is that China is run by engineers, while the US is run by lawyers.
Engineers are pragmatic, and like to do “stuff” – in China’s case big dams, high speed rail systems, 15,000 toilets for tourists and the like. But lawyers….. well, lawyers are lawyers. More often than not, they get in the way of doing stuff. The US pays a price.
I was reminded of this critical US-China distinction during a mesmerising and important presentation at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC) this week by Wang Zhenmin, one of China’s leading legal brains and now legal chief in the central government’s liaison office in Hong Kong.
Wang’s FCC presentation was dutifully reported by the local media, and by a smattering of international media too, but it did not receive a fraction of the attention it deserved. Why so significant? First, Wang spoke on a range of critical sensitive issues with unquestionable direct authority from the very top of China’s government. Second he spoke at the FCC. There can be no clearer lion’s den for a top Chinese official to enter than this. Third, he spoke in eloquent English directly to a global, rather than a purely local, audience. Most important of all, and refreshingly, he did not mince words:
• On the Lee Bo publishers issue, he said it was “a very unfortunate incident”, and that it would be very unfortunate if any such thing ever recurred. He then unequivocally confirmed that only the Hong Kong government and its agencies have authority to enforce the law inside Hong Kong. This was implicit in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and in the Basic Law, but was never spelled out in specific words. I think this is as near as we may ever get to a Beijing confession that someone messed up, and over-reached their authority, in the still-murky Lee Bo matter.
• He came down clear and hard on China’s view that calls for Hong Kong sovereignty were in conflict with Hong Kong’s Basic Law “constitution”, and illegal because of the potential harm implicit in calling for de facto independence for Hong Kong. Some in Hong Kong may disagree with him, but at least he was clear.