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Letters | China’s record on the rule of law hardly inspires trust in Hong Kong

  • Hong Kong’s fears over an extradition bill that leaves its people at the mercy of the mainland law enforcement and judicial systems are real

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Shenzhen as seen from the Hong Kong side. The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index ranks China 82nd among 126 jurisdictions, while Hong Kong is at No 16. Photo: Lea Li
Letters
I refer to the report “Fears over Hong Kong extradition plans ‘laughable and absurd’, former justice chief Elsie Leung says” (April 4).
Beijing-appointed figures like Elsie Leung and Maria Tam have rushed to defend China’s progress in “rule of law” under the party-controlled judiciary, dismissing public concerns about the proposed amendments to the extradition laws as “laughable and absurd”. But shall we try to leave state-sanctioned patriotic feelings on one side to look at the state of China’s rule of law systematically in the global context?
The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index is an authoritative study whose findings are also cited by academics, officials, lawmakers and Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption, among others. Over the past five years, China has persistently scored a mere 0.49 (out of 1.00) and reached 0.50 once in 2017-18. Among the 126 jurisdictions studied by the World Justice Project in its 2019 report, China ranked 82nd, which is the worst performing year thus far.
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In the same year, Hong Kong scored 0.77 and ranked 16th. The rule of law is the foundation of Hong Kong’s way of living. The existing institutional safeguards have served the city well as a firewall between the two systems. Ms Leung and her fellow compatriots are better advised not to defend indefensible judicial and law enforcement systems on the mainland.

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Kenneth Chan, director, Comparative Governance and Policy Research Centre, Department of Government and International Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University 

A WikiLeaks campaign vehicle is parked outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where the website’s founder Julian Assange has sought refuge since June 2012, after the UK Supreme Court ruled that he was to be extradited to Sweden to answer charges of rape and sexual assault. The charges have since been dropped but Assange is still living in the embassy over fears he might be extradited onwards to the US. Photo: EPA-EFE
A WikiLeaks campaign vehicle is parked outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, where the website’s founder Julian Assange has sought refuge since June 2012, after the UK Supreme Court ruled that he was to be extradited to Sweden to answer charges of rape and sexual assault. The charges have since been dropped but Assange is still living in the embassy over fears he might be extradited onwards to the US. Photo: EPA-EFE
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