Exclusive | US cancelling Hong Kong’s special status would hurt both parties, says former secretary for justice Elsie Leung
- In an interview with the Post, city’s first justice minister following the 1997 handover says international critics of the extradition bill do not understand it
- The special status Hong Kong enjoys has sheltered it from trade war, and also affords the US its largest bilateral trade surplus
Both sides stand to lose if the US cancels its special status for Hong Kong to punish the city’s government for pressing ahead with its controversial extradition bill, former secretary for justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie says.
In an exclusive interview with the Post, Hong Kong’s first justice minister after the handover of sovereignty to China in 1997 was adamant that international critics of the bill did not understand the amended legislation, which would allow the transfer of criminal suspects to mainland China, Taiwan and Macau.
She dismissed the possibility of Beijing using it as a political weapon after the arrest of Huawei Technologies chief financial officer Sabrina Meng Wanzhou in Canada and the United States’ demands for her extradition.
Leung suggested the only way forward was for the Legislative Council to get moving on the bill, regardless of fears expressed by Western governments and local opposition politicians, along with the business community, that Beijing’s critics or political targets could be victimised if proper safeguards were not built into it through proper scrutiny.
Given the deadlock in Legco over following usual procedure and letting a bills committee vet the proposal, Leung said, the government’s push to put it to a vote before the full council was now the best way forward.
She said all their fears would prove unfounded, just as those over the “co-location” joint immigration and customs arrangement at the West Kowloon terminus for the express rail link to the mainland subsided after its implementation in September last year.