Hong Kong must protect its high degree of autonomy to ensure ‘one country, two systems’ remains effective

The race to become Hong Kong’s leader officially began today when nominations opened. But, with many of the almost 1,200 voters rushing to pledge their support for the candidate understood to be Beijing’s favourite, we can be forgiven for believing the result is a foregone conclusion.

Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor appears to have already secured the 150 nominations needed to stand and is the strong favourite. Yet a recent poll commissioned by this newspaper showed her to be currently less popular with the public than her rival John Tsang Chun-wah. The apparent role of the central government in favouring and lobbying support for Lam among members of the Election Committee, which nominates and selects the leader, has raised fresh questions about interference by Beijing in the city’s affairs.

It comes at a time of growing concern that the high degree of autonomy Hong Kong enjoys under its de facto constitution, the Basic Law, is being undermined. The disappearance of booksellers from Hong Kong last year – and more recently a tycoon – and their reappearance on the mainland to help authorities there with investigations also suggests a blurring of the boundaries between the mainland’s system and that in Hong Kong. No wonder one candidate, former judge Woo Kwok-hing, is proposing a new law to make interference by mainland officials a criminal offence.

Woo makes an interesting point. Much has been said about Hong Kong’s duty to pass national security laws under Article 23 of the Basic Law, to protect the country. But the preceding provision, Article 22, seeks to safeguard the city’s separate system. It prohibits mainland authorities from interfering in affairs Hong Kong administers “on its own” and requires them to abide by the city’s laws.