Good for him. I am all for sending those thugs to the UK. The great UK must keep its promise now and take in as many "Outsiders" from Hong Kong as there are willing HKers. 1 million? 2 million? UK better not eat its words.
Hong-Kong Protests
- Thread starter Pika
- Start date
Good for him. I am all for sending those thugs to the UK. The great UK must keep its promise now and take in as many "Outsiders" from Hong Kong as there are willing HKers. 1 million? 2 million? UK better not eat its words.
PikeCowboy
Junior Member
unfortunately no, the British and US consulates in HK are both bigger than their respective Beijing embassies and are not under the administration of their Beijing embassy.
PikeCowboy
Junior Member
BEIJING (Reuters) - Beijing’s planned national security legislation for Hong Kong is set to block its foreign judges from handling national security trials, people familiar with the matter said, which would exacerbate concerns about the city’s judicial independence.
Having lost patience with Hong Kong’s failure to adopt national security legislation on its own, China announced on Thursday that it would directly enact laws to tackle secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign interference in the city.
The legislation, which the sources said remains subject to change, would also see both central and city government security agencies set up in Hong Kong, they said.
The people familiar with the issue declined to be identified because they are not authorised to speak to the media.
The Hong Kong government has said the legislation would not affect its judicial independence.
The Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress could not immediately be reached for comment. China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Beijing’s push for the legislation follows months of anti-government protests in Hong Kong last year, fuelled by fears among many in the city of the erosion by Beijing of its autonomy under a “one country, two systems” system set up when it was handed from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
China blames the protests on anti-China “troublemakers”, aided at times by unspecified foreign and external forces.
It has not said when the legislation would be completed but sources and delegates to China’s parliament said it was likely to be enacted before Hong Kong legislative elections in September.
Hong Kong’s foreign judges stem from an arrangement established at its 1997 handover to help maintain its credibility as an international financial hub.
Its highest court, the Court of Final Appeal, has 23 judges, of whom 15 are foreign, from places like Britain, Canada and Australia. All serve as non-permanent members of the court, which means they are called on periodically to sit on cases.
While under the new law they would no longer be able to handle national security cases, they will not be excluded from civil, financial or other cases, the sources said.
However, any move to limit the role of foreign judges is likely to alarm some Hong Kong lawyers and judges, who already fear the city’s vaunted judicial independence is under threat from Beijing’s Communist Party leadership.
The Hong Kong Bar Association said China’s plan to impose the law without public consultation or local legislative scrutiny had caused “deep unease in the local and international community”.
JUDICIAL TRADITION
Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, enshrines the independence of the judiciary and states that judges may come from other common law jurisdictions.
Andy Tsang, a delegate to China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), said he was not aware of details in the yet-to-be-drafted legislation that could bar foreign judges from national security cases, but cited a similar set-up in nearby Macau.
Macau, a semi-autonomous former Portuguese colony, barred foreign judges from hearing national security cases in 2018.
“In Macau ... only judges of Chinese nationality can hear cases relating to national security, and I believe that will be a very good reference,” Tsang, a former Hong Kong police commissioner, told Reuters in an interview on Monday.
Another Hong Kong delegate to the largely rubber-stamp NPC, Maggie Chan, proposed a National Security Court where cases could only be heard by Chinese judges, Hong Kong media cited her as saying on the sidelines of the NPC.
INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
The new legislation is also expected to enable Beijing to establish intelligence agencies in Hong Kong. Mainland security and intelligence services now have no enforcement powers in the city.
The law could also clear the way for a domestic intelligence agency in Hong Kong similar to the colonial-era Special Branch, to deal with national security threats, the territory’s previous leader, Leung Chun-ying, told Reuters in an interview on Saturday.
Tsang, now an officer with China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and deputy director of the National Narcotics Control Commission, said that either the MPS or the Ministry of State Security, China’s main intelligence agency, or both, could be involved in a new security unit in Hong Kong.
“The bill actually says that, the city itself, and the country, will set up dedicated unit, to uphold national security,” he said.
“I would expect the national security agencies will work with the local police in order for the national security of the country (to) be protected.”
Hong Kong has a 700-officer Security Wing that serving and retired police say has been increasingly involved in monitoring some activists and counter-terrorism operations.
Senior Security Wing officials liaise with mainland security services but Tsang said he expected the new agency to have the powers to investigate, arrest and detain.
“We need this, because we need to act according to the law. And so we would expect the new law to be passed will contain these elements,” he said.
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good starting point
She is a British government mouthpiece, the BBC is British state media. Personally, I enjoy interviews like this mightily, especially their whining about Hong Kong, Xinjiang, etc. All it shows is their angry impotence in changing China's behaviour.
PikeCowboy
Junior Member
I think the whole - British common law is a critical part of HK's status as the third international finance hub - is a whole load of bull. It's a "end of history" style of fantasy in the same line as "democracy is necessary for technological innovation" or "the Chinese people will revolt if the annual GDP growth dipped below 7%."
Being one of the few policy sanctioned finance access points to China, is the critical part of HK's status as an international finance hub. If all the foreign judges got kicked out overnight people would still need to do business with China. Are the international businessmen going to be scared? Maybe, I don't know but I'm willing to bet that people who want to come to make money will still want to come to make money. International capital has been doing business with China for 20 years now, China's been the largest trade partner for most of the world for more than 10 years now. It's not exactly an unknown quantity. The common law is pretty comprehensive, but it's not perfect, those who want to come will learn to adapt.
Being one of the few policy sanctioned finance access points to China, is the critical part of HK's status as an international finance hub. If all the foreign judges got kicked out overnight people would still need to do business with China. Are the international businessmen going to be scared? Maybe, I don't know but I'm willing to bet that people who want to come to make money will still want to come to make money. International capital has been doing business with China for 20 years now, China's been the largest trade partner for most of the world for more than 10 years now. It's not exactly an unknown quantity. The common law is pretty comprehensive, but it's not perfect, those who want to come will learn to adapt.
Here it is, guys from HKFP (anti-China rag, so caution advised). This is a gross interference of another sovereign country's internal affairs. It basically reduce (temporary) Hong Kong financial status. As firm's will move to Singapore, etc. But they'll all be back, because those funds are for the China market. And these firms will loose out by not be in the China market!
In the words of lennin, the capitalist will sell you the rope to hang themselves with!
Tweet straight from our friend, we cheat, we lied Pompeo.
"Today, I reported to Congress that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, given facts on the ground. The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong".
POSTED IN
US declares that Hong Kong is no longer enjoying autonomy from China
by 27TH MAY 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Wednesday that Hong Kong no longer enjoys the autonomy promised by Beijing, stripping the financial hub of its special status under US law.
Hours before Beijing will hold a key vote on a controversial new security law on Hong Kong, Pompeo sent a notice to Congress that China was not living up to obligations from before it regained control of the territory from Britain in 1997.
Test of the article:
In the words of lennin, the capitalist will sell you the rope to hang themselves with!
Tweet straight from our friend, we cheat, we lied Pompeo.
"Today, I reported to Congress that Hong Kong is no longer autonomous from China, given facts on the ground. The United States stands with the people of Hong Kong".
POSTED IN
US declares that Hong Kong is no longer enjoying autonomy from China
by 27TH MAY 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared Wednesday that Hong Kong no longer enjoys the autonomy promised by Beijing, stripping the financial hub of its special status under US law.
Hours before Beijing will hold a key vote on a controversial new security law on Hong Kong, Pompeo sent a notice to Congress that China was not living up to obligations from before it regained control of the territory from Britain in 1997.
Test of the article:
hmmmm right on the same day. singapore got one upped by hk, cemented, the latter's power as the financial hub of east asia.
note the move seems to due to the gravity of mainland chinese investors, NOT HK itself. it is such changes that makes US less relevent day by day.
“What we saw in HKEX was a larger customer base, particularly the access to Chinese institutional and retail investors,” Henry Fernandez, MSCI’s chief executive officer, said on a conference call Wednesday.
note the move seems to due to the gravity of mainland chinese investors, NOT HK itself. it is such changes that makes US less relevent day by day.
“What we saw in HKEX was a larger customer base, particularly the access to Chinese institutional and retail investors,” Henry Fernandez, MSCI’s chief executive officer, said on a conference call Wednesday.
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Is it because CIA can no longer operate freely in Hong Kong that US deemed as "no longer autonomous from China?"
HK "pro democracy" politicians and rioters got their wish. Lololol. They had been asking US to revoke HK's special status. Now if special status is revoked, HK will turn into just another Chinese city. Easier to integrate with mainland China liao. Lololol
US stands with the people of Iraq.
US stands with the people of Afghanistan.
US stands with the people of Libya.
US stands with the people of Syria.
Please do not forget that US also stand with the people of Ukraine.