Beijing must respect High Court mask-law ruling in the interests of both Hong Kong and China

Any attempt to undermine Hong Kong’s judiciary would only be seen as a naked power grab by the mainland executive, inadvertently destroying the rule of law crucial to the city’s role as an international financial centre

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Protesters march in Causeway Bay on Halloween, on October 31, in defiance of the unpopular anti-mask law, which was hurriedly enacted under colonial-era emergency laws, a move the High Court has struck down as unconstitutional. Photo: May Tse

Malcolm Rifkind

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, KCMG QC, is a former UK foreign secretary.

Published: 5:00pm, 21 Nov 2019Updated: 5:13pm, 21 Nov 2019

With the fireworks at Hong Kong Polytechnic University dominating international media attention, it is easy to miss a far bigger watershed. After Hong Kong’s High Court rightly pronounced Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s application of the Emergency Regulations Ordinance unconstitutional, China’s National People’s Congress made an announcement which could – if translated into policy – signal the end of Hong Kong’s rule of law as we know it.

Noting that China’s “constitution and the Basic Law jointly form the constitutional foundation of [Hong Kong]”, a spokesman for the NPC Standing Committee’s Legislative Affairs Commission said: “Whether Hong Kong’s laws are consistent with the Basic Law can only be judged and decided by the NPCSC. No other authority has the right to make judgments and decisions.”

The statement also condemned the Hong Kong judgment as “severely weakening the legally enshrined power to govern enjoyed by the chief executive”.