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No ‘secret’ operations under way at controversial high-speed cross-border rail link, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam says
Assurances given amid criticism by lawmakers and members of public they had not received advance notice of 15-minute ceremony on Monday night to hand over 105,000 square metre area inside West Kowloon terminus to mainland authorities
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Arrangements for mainland Chinese officials at the new cross-border railway station in Hong Kong are not being conducted in “secret”, the city’s leader stressed on Tuesday, as she ordered the MTR Corporation and government departments to respond promptly to any public concerns.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor was responding to complaints by lawmakers that they had been kept in the dark about a 15-minute ceremony on Monday night to hand over a 105,000 square metre port area inside the West Kowloon terminus to mainland authorities. A press release was issued shortly after midnight.
Under the controversial “co-location” arrangement, mainland personnel will run the joint border checkpoint and enforce mainland laws at their designated port area, when the HK$84.4 billion (US$10.7 billion) Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link opens on September 23.
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Lam insisted the Monday night event had not been a “ceremony”, even though the official press release said Hong Kong transport and housing minister Frank Chan Fan and Guangdong provincial government deputy secretary general Lin Ji “hosted a ceremony marking the commissioning of the mainland port area”.
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About 100 mainland and Hong Kong officials attended the event, which was not publicised in advance, and the news media were not invited.
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