Opinion | Controversy over role of Beijing’s offices in Hong Kong shows weight of ‘one country’ threatens the scaffolding of ‘two systems’

If the Basic Law’s restraint on mainland departments interfering in local affairs does not apply to offices of the central government in Hong Kong, what is the point of the mini-constitution?

Meanwhile, Hongkongers have been denied the capacity to form a government that would be capable of defending the city’s autonomy

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Construction workers remove the scaffolding on a building in Sham Shui Po as the Hong Kong and Chinese flags flutter in the foreground, in June 2019. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 6:30am, 24 Apr 2020Updated: 7:24am, 24 Apr 2020

The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and the central government’s liaison office have over the past week proclaimed their independence from Basic Law constraints.

The HKMAO and the liaison office specifically claim not to be bound by Basic Law Article 22’s limitations on interference in Hong Kong affairs. The Hong Kong office of China’s Foreign Ministry supported this position. They never quite explain how the offices, which the Hong Kong government repeatedly said were set up in accordance with Article 22, are no longer bound by the same article.

As they proclaim the central government’s power, in their hands, to supervise the local government’s exercise of autonomy under the Basic Law, we can only wonder what is left of the promised autonomy under the “one country, two systems” framework. Has “one country” completely swallowed “two systems”?

When we are told that the Basic Law restraint on mainland departments interfering in local affairs does not apply to these offices of the central government, we can only wonder what the point of the Basic Law is. The very specific provision in Article 2 of the Basic Law providing for a high degree of autonomy with an independent executive, legislative and judicial power apparently does not mean what it says.

The requirement in Article 16 that Hong Kong exercise executive power “on its own” apparently does not mean that either.