Posts Tagged "China"

Decision by China’s top legislative body will see mainland laws enforced in designated zone, amid fears that city’s autonomy will be undermined Dec. 27, 2017 (South China Morning Post) — Beijing on Wednesday formally approved a controversial plan for mainland officials to enforce national laws in part of a station on the Hong Kong side for a cross-border rail link under construction, presenting a done deal to the city amid an...

November 7, 2016 (SCMP) – Following Beijing’s decision to intervene with an interpretation of the Basic Law on oath taking by Legislative Council members, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said Hong Kong would move to enact Article 23, a controversial provision of the Basic Law relating to national security legislation. Full SCMP story:...

May 24, 2016 (South China Morning Post) — Op-ed by Cliff Buddle — Whenever central government officials comment on Hong Kong’s judiciary, they court controversy. State leader Zhang Dejiang’s (張德江) remarks about the rule of law during his brief visit to the city last week were no exception. The speeches he made in Hong Kong were generally well received and moderate in tone. Zhang, chairman of the National People’s Congress,...

April 27, 2016 — Financial and political pressures from mainland China have gradually eroded Hong Kong’s historically free media over the past decade, according to Freedom House’s Freedom of the Press report. The trend has grown worse in tandem with deteriorating conditions on the mainland itself, where an already repressive environment for freedom of expression has become even more restrictive since President Xi Jinping took...

April 27, 2016 (South China Morning Post), Oped by Glenville Cross — Although the Hong Kong National Party’s calls for independence have upset many people, the party is on a hiding to nothing. Hong Kong is an integral part of China, and this will not change. Beijing will never yield an inch of territory. In the early 1980s, when Margaret Thatcher’s government examined its 1997 options, it reportedly considered the possibility of...