China News Agency, Hong Kong, March 30th: Interview with Tan Huizhu: Hong Kong's Basic Law condenses broad consensus and fully reflects the principle of "one country, two systems"

China News Agency reporter Zhang Xiaoxi

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the promulgation of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (Hong Kong Basic Law). Tan Huizhu, deputy director of the Hong Kong Basic Law Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and former member of the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee, said in an exclusive interview with reporters from the China News Agency in Hong Kong that the Hong Kong Basic Law has, to the greatest extent, consolidated the common will of all Chinese people, including the majority of Hong Kong compatriots, The interests of all parties and the consensus reached have fully reflected the spirit of the "one country, two systems" principle.

As a witness, Tan Huizhu said that the drafting of the Hong Kong Basic Law began on July 1, 1985, and was officially adopted by the Third Session of the Seventh National People's Congress on April 4, 1990. It took about four years and ten months. The entire drafting process is also a process of legalizing the "one country, two systems" policy.

Tan Huizhu pointed out that before the drafting of the Hong Kong Basic Law, China and the United Kingdom signed the "Sino-British Joint Declaration" in 1984, but only wrote out the general principles. There was no such thing as "housework" in China such as the relationship between the Central and Hong Kong Special Administrative Regions. Involved, this is the content of the Hong Kong Basic Law.

In April 1985, the National People's Congress established the Hong Kong Basic Law Drafting Committee, consisting of 59 people, of whom 23 were from Hong Kong. Tan Huizhu said that all articles, attachments and related documents of the draft Hong Kong Basic Law have been adopted by the Drafting Committee in a secret way and voted piece by piece by all members, which must be approved by a two-thirds majority before they can be submitted to the National People's Congress for review. "Members from the Mainland or Hong Kong cannot pass, and they must have a mainstream opinion before they can pass." She said.

At that time, the Drafting Committee was divided into five groups. Tan Huizhu mainly participated in the work of Hong Kong's political system and the relationship between the Central and Hong Kong Special Administrative Regions, but encountered many difficulties in the process. The first difficulty I encountered was about the use of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China in Hong Kong.

"At that time, some members of Hong Kong believed that the Constitution was not necessary with the Basic Law, but other members made it very clear that the Constitution is enforced nationwide." She pointed out that although the system and policies of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are stipulated in the Basic Law On the basis, but does not mean that the Constitution is not applicable in Hong Kong, the relationship between the Constitution and the Hong Kong Basic Law is the mother law and the child law.

Another issue is whether Hong Kong enjoys other residual powers in addition to national defense and diplomacy. In this regard, Tan Huizhu clearly stated that the essence of the Hong Kong Basic Law is the enabling law. Therefore, Hong Kong has the powers conferred by the Hong Kong Basic Law. "So some people in the opposition and legal circles in Hong Kong interpret the Basic Law as a local law of the common law and think that 'the law can do without prohibition', which is 100% wrong."

Tan Huizhu also pointed out that the relevant political system of Hong Kong and the non-constitutional review power of the Hong Kong courts were also issues that had been arguing for a long time, but it was only after reaching consensus and converging into mainstream opinions that relevant provisions were passed.

In her opinion, after the passage of the Hong Kong Basic Law in 1990, the impact was very positive. At that time, there were polls in Hong Kong showing that the number of Hong Kong citizens who supported the Hong Kong Basic Law was relatively large. Role.

After Hong Kong's return to the motherland on July 1, 1997, the Hong Kong Basic Law officially came into play. Tan Huizhu believes that the implementation of the Hong Kong Basic Law is very good in terms of people's livelihood, economy, science, education, culture and foreign relations, but there are still some disputes in the relationship between the Central Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

"These disputes are still mainly about people trying to fight for Hong Kong's governance, and even linking foreign forces." She pointed out that from the illegal "occupation of China" in 2014 to the storm of legislative amendments that began in June 2019, The problem remains unresolved, and the relationship between the Central Government and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region as stipulated in the Hong Kong Basic Law has not been implemented satisfactorily.

Tan Huizhu said that due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Hong Kong's current priority is to respond to the epidemic, and she is very pleased to see that Hong Kong's constitutional political corps donated masks and other anti-epidemic materials to grassroots Hong Kong citizens. Concerns about the health of citizens' lives.

Regarding the future, she believes that there is still a long way to go to get Hong Kong back on track, improve the economy and people's livelihood, publicize the Constitution and the Basic Law, and education, all of which require continuous improvement and adjustment. (Finish)