How will life look in Hong Kong after 2047? New think tank looks to map out city’s future
Platform will allow young scholars from all sides of the debate to set out blueprint for city after ‘one country, two systems’ guarantee expires
A think tank launches on Sunday with the aim of fostering dialogue between young people in Hong Kong and the mainland on the “one country, two systems” blueprint guaranteeing the city’s freedoms and the way forward after it expires in 2047.
Members of the One Country Two Systems Youth Forum, convened by Henry Ho Kin-chung, former political assistant at the Development Bureau, include associate law professor Tian Feilong of Beihang University in Beijing, and Li Xiaobing, an associate professor at Nankai University’s law school in Tianjin.
“There are bound to be conflicts in the implementation of the ‘one country, two systems’ blueprint, and we believe the differences could be narrowed down via dialogues,” Ho said.
Under Article 5 of the Basic Law – the city’s mini-constitution – the mainland’s socialist system was not implemented in Hong Kong after the handover in 1997, and the city’s capitalist system was guaranteed for 50 years.
Ho sees the think tank as a two-way platform that will allow mainland scholars to reach out to the city and at the same time channel Hongkongers’ voices to the country.
