Top Basic Law Committee members to visit, share views
Committee chairman Li Fei and vice-chairman Zhang Rongshun would "exchange views with senior officials, department heads and members of the community on issues relating to the Basic Law and the political structure" of the city, a government spokesman said.
Two top members of the Basic Law Committee will visit tomorrow upon the invitation of Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
Committee chairman Li Fei and vice-chairman Zhang Rongshun would "exchange views with senior officials, department heads and members of the community on issues relating to the Basic Law and the political structure" of the city, a government spokesman said yesterday.
The pair will also meet the Bar Association and Law Society before leaving on Saturday.
Their trip comes as an election law academic suggests that the committee, which functions under the National People's Congress Standing Committee, will be a "good starting point" for Beijing's representatives to take part openly in the city's upcoming public consultation on reforms for the next chief executive and legislative polls.
This was because half its 12 members, being Hongkongers, were better known to locals, said the University of Hong Kong's Professor Simon Young Ngai-man. He advised against the type of private sessions Beijing's liaison office held with certain pan-democrats in 2010, before lawmakers voted on constitutional reform proposals.
"[There] might be a process that should involve mainland officials directly, rather than the sort of back-door meetings."