Carrie Lam pushes for Legco to prioritise debate on high-speed rail link border checkpoint

Chief Executive says ‘time will be very tight’ if debate is delayed, as government aims to get Beijing’s endorsement for the plan by end of this year

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Carrie Lam (middle) visits the West Kowloon terminal of the Hong Kong high-speed rail link with the mainland. Photo: Handout

Published: 1:49pm, 17 Oct 2017Updated: 12:34pm, 18 Oct 2017

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on Tuesday that the government wanted to ensure that lawmakers debate, in just over a week, her border checkpoint plan giving mainland officials almost full jurisdiction over a section of a Hong Kong train terminal.

To do this, it would at Wednesday’s Legislative Council meeting ask to postpone a potentially lengthy debate on stamp duties to November, she said. This would allow the debate on the controversial checkpoint plan to start on October 25, as she had planned.

The Hong Kong government in July proposed leasing to the mainland a quarter of the West Kowloon terminus of its under-construction HK$84.4 billion high-speed rail link to Guangzhou. National laws would apply in the leased area.

All you need to know about the Hong Kong-mainland rail link, co-located checkpoints and law enforcement issues

Hong Kong would put local immigration, quarantine and customs facilities in the area as well. Giving an example of why this was necessary, the government said that without mainland law enforced in the area, there could be an influx of criminals and asylum seekers from the mainland to the city.

Pro-democracy lawmakers argued that this goes against the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, which says that under the “one country, two systems” principle, mainland law does not apply in the city. Government officials retorted that the area would be leased to the mainland, though it acknowledged that it would first need to get authorisation from China’s legislative body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.

Lam had earlier announced that the transport minister would table a motion in the Legco on October 25 to trigger a debate on the plan. She said that while the motion would not have any legal effect, it would draw to a close months of public discussion.

On Tuesday, Lam said that it was crucial for the debate to take place as planned.