Constitution applies in HK, too

Wang Zhimin, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, published a signed article on the official website of the Liaison Office on Monday to mark the National Constitution Day.

Regarding the significance of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China to the HKSAR, Wang quoted President Xi Jinping as stating in Hong Kong on July 1 that “Hong Kong’s return to the motherland completed a great transition of constitutional order in Hong Kong, where the nation’s Constitution and the Basic Law of the HKSAR together form the constitutional foundation of the HKSAR”.

Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung on Monday said the SAR government would soon publicize relevant knowledge about the Constitution and how it relates to Hong Kong, with a publicity drive he will personally head.

Wang also explained in his article that the Basic Law of the SAR is born of the nation’s Constitution, which applies in Hong Kong as a matter of course. It is therefore safe to say the Constitution not only cements Hong Kong’s status in the PRC but also symbolizes “one country” in the “one country, two systems” principle, as does the Basic Law. The ultimate authority of the Constitution is unparalleled. This means Hong Kong as an inalienable part of the PRC must abide by it unconditionally as all other regions of the country do. In layman’s terms the Constitution is the “mother” and the Basic Law her “child”. Without the Constitution there is no Basic Law, the “one country, two systems” principle or “the Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong” to begin with. To be more specific, the Constitution and the Basic Law’s legal authority over the HKSAR are established via Article 31 of the Constitution.

The mainland and the two SARs of Hong Kong and Macao have their own legal and judicial systems but there can be only one Constitution for all of them. The Constitution stipulates that the socialist system is the fundamental system of the mainland — the main body of the country. In deference to the Constitution’s supreme legal authority the HKSAR must respect the socialist system of the mainland and support the leadership of the Communist Party of China — the ruling party of the PRC according to the Constitution.

For the same reason the SAR’s residents also share the constitutional duty of safeguarding the nation’s sovereignty, security and development interests, as all their mainland compatriots do. They must not do anything detrimental to the socialist system of the mainland. However, this does not affect Hong Kong’s capitalist system, thanks to the “one country, two systems” principle enshrined in the Basic Law.