In January 2010 the LegCo Finance Committee approved funding for construction of the Express Rail Link (高鐵). At the time, legislators raised questions about how immigration would be handled and whether co-location would be pursued.
Despite reminders by LegCo members over the interceding years, there was no response until just a few weeks ago. The NPCSC (人大常委會) resolved that authorities stationed by the mainland will carry out their duties in a ‘Mainland Port Area’ at the West Kowloon Station, covering immigration, customs, quarantine, port administration and railway police.
Having had seven years to mull it over, the government’s decision to take this route over a more amenable one—such as amending the Basic Law—is a politically charged one. It is designed to reinforce the announcement put forward in the June 2014 white paper that the Central Government has comprehensive jurisdiction over the HKSAR, describing the local judiciary as administrators with jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases but without jurisdiction over acts of state. The white paper also declared that the HKSAR’s high degree of autonomy is subject to the central leadership’s authorization. (有7年時間去研究解決一地兩檢的法律問題，最後竟然是用行政命令去達成法律效力，根本就是借機強調香港的高度自治是中央政府授權的。)
“Rule by decree” works for the mainland legal system, but it is out of sync with Hong Kong’s celebrated “rule of law”. A decree is an official order that has the force of law. Synonyms include edict, command, proclamation, dictum, and fiat. Beijing may be focused on gaining comprehensive control, but ruling by decree destroys the trust individuals and companies have in the predictability of the rule of law. Losing that trust undermines the bedrock of Hong Kong’s success. What a shame. (破壞法治等同破壞香港成功的基石)
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