Opinion | It’s in Hong Kong’s best interests to make its unique constitutional system a success

Hong Kong has a unique constitutional system that blends mainland practices with the common law system. The special administrative region has many powers under the Basic Law, the local constitution, but it has had to refer matters to Beijing on occasion, the latest of which led to the resolution on August 11 by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee to extend the current term of the Hong Kong legislature by a year.

While Hong Kong’s chief executive could have exercised local emergency powers to postpone the Legislative Council elections originally scheduled for September 6, citing public safety concerns arising from a surge in Covid-19 infections, she did not have the authority to extend the current term. She needed the State Council to put in a request to the NPC Standing Committee to resolve the issue.

Another example was the NPC Standing Committee’s approval of the “co-location” checkpoint agreement between Hong Kong and the mainland in 2017, authorising mainland officials to perform exit and entry inspections within a designated area at West Kowloon station for the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express railway, for the convenience of passengers.

There have also been six Basic Law interpretations by the NPC Standing Committee. From the earliest days when “one country, two systems” was proposed by China, questions were raised about how the NPC Standing Committee would function as Hong Kong’s highest court.