Hong Kong opposition lawmakers propose raft of amendments to stall high-speed rail link

Three days before the deadline for lawmakers to complete their scrutiny of the controversial joint checkpoint plan for Hong Kong’s cross-border rail link to Guangzhou, the opposition camp has proposed some 30 amendments to delay the passage of the bill.

“The bill is unconstitutional. We raise the amendments to highlight the problems,” Civic Party lawmaker Tanya Chan said on Friday.

Claudia Mo Man-ching of Council Front said: “Even though we know the amendments would hardly get passed … we will do as much as we can to show the absurdity of the bill.”

But the pan-democratic camp’s latest attempt to stall an arrangement they have long opposed did little to deter bills committee chairwoman Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee. Ip, who is also a member of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s cabinet, said she aimed to close the discussion by Monday.

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Ip set the deadline of May 7 after the government reminded her last month that the committee, which began looking at the bill on February 12, should complete its task by mid-May. This was because bills must be scrutinised within three months under Legislative Council house rules.

If the bills committee wraps up its work on time, the government can present the legislation to the full chamber for a vote by the end of this month, allowing the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link to begin operating in September as planned.

Transport minister Frank Chan Fan said on Saturday that he hoped lawmakers could handle the bill in a rational manner, and that he found the amendments irrelevant.

“I very much hope that the draft bill would be passed by early next week,” Chan said. “But I fully appreciate the number of amendments being tabled by fellow members of the legislature. It basically showed their will and opinions.”