Update | Hong Kong barristers hit out at Beijing’s white paper, vow to protect judicial independence
Bar Association criticises the placing of judges in same category as top officials as 'erroneous' and pledges to defend judicial independence
Barristers have come out in strong defence of Hong Kong's judicial independence, a day after the central government published an unprecedented white paper outlining Beijing's "comprehensive jurisdiction" over the city.
The Bar Association said it was "erroneous" for Beijing to place local judges in the same category as "Hong Kong's administrators", including the chief executive and top officials.
People need not be overly sensitive or read too much into certain wordings
While courts elsewhere might "sing in unison" with the government, that was not the case in Hong Kong, it said.
"Any erroneous public categorisation of judges and judicial officers as 'administrators' or official exhortation for them to carry out any political mission or task" would send out the wrong message to Hongkongers and the international community, it said.
In the white paper, issued by the State Council on Tuesday, Beijing suggests judges "have on their shoulders the responsibility of correctly understanding and implementing the Basic Law".
It also says administrators - including, for Beijing, judges - have a "basic political requirement" to love the country.
The Bar Association took exception to the paper categorising judges as administrators and officially ordering them to fulfil political roles.