Admit that Basic Law does not provide legal basis for joint checkpoint plan, Jasper Tsang urges Hong Kong officials
Former Legco president says justifying the arrangement as such will only erode Hongkongers’ faith in the city’s mini-constitution
Pro-Beijing heavyweight Jasper Tsang Yok-sing on Thursday said officials should admit that the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, did not provide the legal basis for the controversial joint checkpoint arrangement of the cross-border express rail link.
The former Legislative Council president said the plan did not contravene the “one country, two systems” principle, but if officials kept insisting the Basic Law provided for such an arrangement, it would only undermine Hongkongers’ faith in the mini-constitution.
Tsang’s remarks on the management of the terminus, which would allow mainland officials to enforce national laws in part of the rail terminus, came as three ministers are set to attend a meeting on the matter with the country’s top legislative body on Friday.
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“The Basic Law has left no room for implementing the ‘co-location’ arrangement,” Tsang wrote in his column in a Chinese-language newspaper. He said the government should not try to find justification from its clauses but instead admit that the situation was beyond the imagination of law drafters some 20 years ago.
By insisting otherwise, it would make Hongkongers worry that they were no longer protected by the mini-constitution, Tsang argued.