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National security law: former Beijing official accuses Hong Kong’s first post-handover chief justice of not grasping city’s Basic Law
- Xu Ze, former deputy director of Beijing body in charge of Hong Kong affairs, says Andrew Li has helped fuel myths about city’s political system
- In a warning before national security law took effect, Li said city leader’s powers to designate judges for those proceedings undermined judicial independence
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A former Beijing official in charge of Hong Kong affairs has accused the city’s first post-handover chief justice of failing to understand the Basic Law when expressing his concern over the chief executive’s power to designate judges for national security law cases.
Xu Ze, the ex-deputy director of the cabinet-level Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, said the “persistent misunderstanding” of Hong Kong’s political system displayed by former top judge Andrew Li Kwok-nang and his supporters was the main reason for distorted perceptions about how the city was governed.
In a commentary published in the Post on Monday rejecting Li’s assessment that the city leader’s judge-selecting powers undermined the judiciary’s independence, Xu said: “It is necessary to closely study the Basic Law and the [Chinese] constitution.
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“I hope Li and those who agree with him could make some headway in this direction.”
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Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, a semi-official think tank of which Xu is the president, said on Monday that Xu’s views represented Beijing’s line of thinking.
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“Beijing has been unhappy with the distortion of the Basic Law by the judicial sector in Hong Kong,” Lau said.
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