Hongkongers are ‘calm’ about joint checkpoint plan for high-speed rail terminal, top Chinese official says

A top mainland official has expressed confidence that most Hongkongers will accept a controversial plan to have national laws enforced at the Hong Kong end of the high-speed rail link to Guangzhou, and no interpretation of the city’s mini-constitution is necessary to enable it.

Wang Guangya, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said on Monday that city residents were “calm” about leasing part of the West Kowloon terminus to mainland authorities for joint checkpoint facilities, echoing Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s assertion that the public would eventually accept the “co-location” deal.

As opposition politicians spearheaded a campaign against the plan, accusing the local government of ceding territory to the mainland and undermining the “one country, two systems” principle, Wang said the general response had been “rational”.

“The co-location arrangement is completely consistent with the Basic Law and ‘one country, two systems’,” he said. “I believe most people in the city will support it because it will bring economic and social benefits.”

Lam struck a similarly optimistic note after a meeting at the headquarters of the state-owned China Railway Corporation in Beijing.

“The Hong Kong public is calm in general, and understands the explanation ... Opinion polls show that the majority of people look forward to the official launch of the station,” she said.

One station, two systems: how joint checkpoint will work for Hong Kong-mainland China high-speed rail line

She said the government was unworried by legal challenges to the arrangement, as it was acting on solid legal foundations. Her administration would not ask the national legislature to reinterpret the Basic Law on the topic, she added.