Opposing China’s socialist system flouts Hong Kong’s Basic Law

Qiao Xiaoyang, in a recent speech, explains that Hong Kong, as a special administrative region of China’s unitary system, is not above the Chinese constitution. It must support the nation’s goal for national rejuvenation, understand the hierarchy of the relationship between China’s constitution and the Basic Law, and accept the leadership of the Communist Party

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Hong Kong is a special administrative region in China, practising capitalism within a socialist country. The hierarchy of this relationship must be clear to all; the order cannot be reversed. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:00pm, 27 Apr 2018Updated: 1:11pm, 27 Apr 2018

Organisers of the forum have asked me to speak on China’s constitution, its amendments, and the relationship between the constitution and Hong Kong’s Basic Law. I will address some issues pertaining to these topics.

First, what is the essence of our constitution and its key characteristics? The last paragraph of the preamble of the constitution provides the answer. It reads: “This constitution, in legal form, affirms the achievements of the struggles of the Chinese people of all nationalities and defines the basic system and basic tasks of the state; it is the fundamental law of the state and has supreme legal authority.”

From the perspective of comparative constitutional law, this sentence can be interpreted on three levels.

The first is that any national constitution is the fundamental law of the country. In this regard, our constitution is no different from those of other countries.

The second is that the constitution in any country defines the basic system of the country. The basic system of our country, according to our constitution, is socialism. To be exact, it is socialism with Chinese characteristics. This is very different from the basic systems of other countries.

The third level is, in my view, the most important. The constitutions of other countries, especially those of Western countries, usually do not specify the country’s fundamental task but our constitution specifies it. This basic task in fact determines what the basic system should be. This is the major difference between our constitution and those of others.