Lawmakers confident co-location bill will pass this month

Hong Kong’s pro-establishment legislators are confident they will overcome the opposition’s filibustering tactics and pass the Express Rail Link co-location bill this month, letting the city’s high-speed rail project start operating in September.

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, chairperson of the Legislative Council’s bills committee on co-location, on Wednesday said she expected the LegCo will finish deliberating on the bill within the month.

The bill permits a jointcheckpoint arrangement where national laws would apply to the Mainland Port Area at the West Kowloon Station of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.

Lawmaker Ben Chan Hanpan agreed with Ip, saying there will be enough time to pass the bill before LegCo’s summer recess despite continuous obstruction from opposition lawmakers.

LegCo Chairman Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen has set an upper limit of 36 hours, spanning two weeks, to pass the bill.

Lawmaker Vincent Cheung Wing-shun supported Leung’s decision, as opposition lawmakers — who were apparently “hard to persuade” — had already elaborated on their opinions at previous bill committee meetings which lasted more than 40 hours.

Opposition lawmakers prolonged Wednesday’s meeting

— the first session of the second reading of the bill — for at least one hour by putting forward motions to discuss other issues, or asking for quorums in the chamber.

Earlier, the opposition proposed up to 75 amendments, of which just 24 were accepted, in which the arrangement’s legal basis is spotlighted.

Ip said the co-location arrangement is in line with the

“one country, two systems” policy, the national Constitution and Basic Law, according to a cooperation agreement approved by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee last December.

Opposition lawmakers claim the bill is unconstitutional. Ip said this showed they do not understand the Constitution or respect the power of the nation’s top legislative body.