Politics of Hong Kong

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This article is part of the series
Politics and government of Hong Kong

> Basic Law
Government
Chief Executive
Donald Tsang
Executive Council
Depts and related organisations
Legislative Council
Elections
Political parties
Judiciary
Court of Final Appeal
Districts
District Councils
Human rights
Foreign relations

Politics of Hong Kong takes place in a framework of a political system dominated by the People's Republic of China, an own legislature, the Chief Executive as the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. On July 1, 1997, Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control, when the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred to the People's Republic of China (PRC), ending more than 150 years of British colonial control. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the PRC with a high degree of autonomy in all matters except foreign and defense affairs. According to the Sino-British Joint Declaration (1984) and the Basic Law – Hong Kong's mini-constitution – for "50 years", a slogan-type description, after transition Hong Kong will retain its political, economic, and judicial systems and unique way of life and continue to participate in international agreements and organisations as a dependent territory. For instance, the International Olympic Committee recognises Hong Kong as a participating dependency under the name, "Hong Kong, China", separate from the Mainland China.

Contents

Overview

In accordance with Article 31 of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong has Special Administrative Region status, which provides constitutional guarantees for implementing the policy of "one country, two systems". The government is economically very liberal and is rather democratic but with limited suffrage for special elections. The head of government (the Chief Executive of Hong Kong) is not elected directly but through an electoral college which is partially appointed with the rest elected in special elections with limited suffrage. The Basic Law comprises the constitution, which was approved in March 1990 by National People's Congress of the (PRC).

On the other hand, the legal system of Hong Kong is generally based on the English common law system. The current legal system will stay in force until at least 30 June 2047.

All citizens 18 years of age and older are eligible for the direct elections, as suffrage is universal for permanent residents living in the territory of Hong Kong for seven years. Meanwhile, eligibility for certain indirect elections limited to about 180 000 voters in twenty-eight functional constituencies (composed of business and professional sectors), and the Chief Executive is elected by an 800-member electoral college drawn mostly from the voters in the functional constituencies but also from religious organisations and municipal and central government bodies.

Government

The Chief Executive is the head of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China and the Government, the executive branch. The legislative branch is the unicameral Legislative Council. The judicial branch consists of a series of courts, of which the court of final adjudication is the Court of Final Appeal.

Executive branch

Main article: Hong Kong Government

Donald Tsang was formally sworn in and installed into the office of Chief Executive on June 24, having been elected 16 June and appointed by the Central People's Government on 21 June.

Tung Chee-Hwa, Hong Kong's first Chief Executive, assumed office formally on July 1, 1997, following his election by the 400-member Election Committee which was in turn generated by the Preparatory Committee of the HKSAR. The process had been so designed such that Chief Executive candidates must be acceptable to the PRC Government. Tung was declared re-elected uncontested to his second term in 2002 by the judiciary, as he was the only legally nominated candidate, and the Election Committee (which had newly been expanded to 800 members) did not have to go into session. The mechanism of electing the Chief Executive in the future is currently under consultation by the Government. Any Basic Law amendment bill would first have to pass on a two-thirds vote by LegCo, and gain the approval of the sitting Chief Executive, and the National People's Congress, to become an electoral law, due to the requirements laid out in Section 7 of Annex I to the Basic Law.

In 2002, Tung has changed the system of Government such that the posts of top officials are no longer civil servant posts. Instead, such posts are to be held by political appointees, and supported by career civil servants. The new system is dubbed the "accountability system" of principal officials. Under the new system, principal officials are chosen by the Chief Executive and would need to shoulder political responsibilities for their policies and decisions. They can now be more focused on political efforts such as bargaining with Legislative Council members. The system was also supposed to strengthen Tung's hold on the running of the government.

Tung announced resignation on March 10 2005, this being approved by the Central Government two days later. Donald Tsang, as Chief Secretary, assumed duty as Acting Chief Executive. Tsang resigned on May 25 2005 to contest in the by-election. The Financial Secretary assumed duty as Acting Chief Executive, whereas Michael Suen served as Acting Chief Secretary.

Donald Tsang was the only candidate to obtain the required nominations from 100 members of the Election Committee for candidacy, and was, like Tung, declared elected immediately following the close of nominations, and five days later the Central People's Government endorsed his election. He went to Beijing to be formally installed and sworn in.

Overall, the Civil Service still maintains its quality and neutrality nowadays, operating without discernible direction from Beijing.

Legislative branch

There is a unicameral Legislative Council (often abbreviated LegCo) which functions as the main legislative body. The Third Legislative Council (term: 2004-2008) holds 60 seats, 30 having been returned from the twenty-eight functional constituencies (indirect election through the business and economic sectors) and 30 from geographical constituencies (electoral districts) by universal suffrage. The composition of LegCo's second and third terms was specified by the Basic Law (specifically Ann. 2, Sect. 1). Starting with the Second Legislative Council, members have served four-year terms. The First Legislative Council was in office only two years because of Article 69 of the Basic Law.

The geographical constituencies are elected based on proportional representation system with seats allocated according to the largest remainder method with Hare quotas. The functional constituencies are returned using two systems: 4 special functional constituencies (Heung Yee Kuk, Agricultural and Fisheries, Insurance, and Transport) elect their representatives using the preferential elimination system, one (Labour) applies Block vote, while the other 23 ordinary functional constituencies use the first past the post system.

Under the initial design, the last Legislative Council of Hong Kong under British rule was to be elected according to the Basic Law and would have become the first Legislative Council of the HKSAR. Christopher Patten, the last British Governor of Hong Kong, had extended the electorate of functional constituencies to cover virtually all employees in Hong Kong, and the 1995 Council was therefore elected by virtual universal suffrage. The PRC government strongly criticized such an arrangement as breaching diplomatic agreements between China and the UK, and had set up a Provisional Legislative Council appointed prior to the handover to take over the role of legislature on 1 July 1997.

The first Legislative Council elections after the handover proceeded May 24, 1998, the second on September 10, 2000, and the third on September 12, 2004. Thirty seats each are returned from geographical constituencies and functional constituencies (Ann. 2, Sect. 1, Basic Law). The method of selecting legislative council seats from 2008 onwards has become a subject of intense debate in the government recently.

The elections were praised by pro-Government camp as free, open, and widely contested, but were criticized by the pro-democracy camp as unfair and not democratic enough, as some can cast more than one vote (in both geographical and functional constituencies). In all of these elections, the indirect election method spelled out by Annex II of the Basic Law caused the pro-Beijing bloc to win an overall majority of the seats, including a majority of indirectly elected positions while pro-democracy and the independents took most of the directly elected seats. For instance, the 2004 election saw the pro-Beijing camp take 23 of the 30 functional constituency seats and the democratic camp take 18 of 30 directly-elected seats, with the pro-China bloc taking the overall majority in LegCo 35 seats to 25.

According to the Article 68 and Annex II of the Basic Law, the passage of bills and motions introduced by the government requires the approval of a simple majority of Legislative Council members present (the quorum set at one half of the members), while bills and motions introduced by Legislative Council members require simple majority votes of each of the two groups of members: those returned by functional constituencies, and those returned by geographical constituencies. As a result, a bill from the government is much easier to pass than a bill from members. This arrangement reflects the "executive-led" philosophy underlying the Basic Law, but was considered by some as weakening the role of the legislature in overseeing the government.

Judicial branch

The supreme judicial body is the Court of Final Appeal, which is given final adjudication in all cases by virtue of Article 82 of the Basic Law.

Major political issues in recent years

Right of Abode

Main article: Right of abode issue, Hong Kong

On 29 January, 1999, the Court of Final Appeal, the highest judicial authority in Hong Kong interpreted several Articles of the Basic Law, in such a way that the Government estimated would allow 1.6 million Mainland China immigrants to enter Hong Kong within ten years. This caused widespread concerns among the public on the social and economical consequences.

While some in the legal sector advocated that the National People's Congress (NPC) should be asked to amend the part of the Basic Law to redress the problem, the HKSAR Government decided to seek an interpretation to, rather than an amendment of, the relevant Basic Law provisions from the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC). The NPCSC issued an interpretation in favour of the Government in June 1999. While the full powers of NPCSC to interpret the Basic Law is provided for in the Basic Law itself, some critics argues this undermines judicial independence.

Basic Law Article 23

Main article: Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23

In 2003, the HKSAR Government proposed to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law by legislating against acts such as treason, subversion, secession and sedition. However, there are concerns that the legislation might infringe on human rights. Some are also worried that the legislation might introduce the mainland's concept of national security into the HKSAR via the proposed power of proscribing organisations that endanger the security of the state. General dissatisfaction with the Tung administration led to the 1 July protests in 2003.

After the mass protest, the Liberal Party, whose support is essential for the passage of the legislation schedule for 9 July 2003, called for a delay in passing the legislation. On 6 July, Tung Chee Hwa announced that the second reading of the proposed legislation was to be postponed after James Tien of the Liberal Party resigned from the Executive Council and would have his party members vote for a postponement.

Universal suffrage

Towards the end of 2003, the focus of political controversy shifted to the dispute of how subsequent Chief Executives get elected. The Basic Law's Article 45 stipulates that the eventual goal is universal suffrage; when and how to achieve that goal, however, remains open but controversial. Under the Basic Law, electoral law could be amended to allow for this as soon as 2007 (Ann.1, Sect.7). Arguments over this issue seemed to be responsible for a series of Mainland Chinese newspapers commentaries in February 2004 which stated that power over Hong Kong was only fit for "patriots."

The interpretation of the NPCSC to Annex I and II of the Basic Law, promulgated on April 6 2004, made it clear that the National People's Congress' support is required over proposals to amend the electoral system under Basic Law. On April 26, 2004, the Standing Committee of National People's Congress denied the possibility of universal suffrage in 2007 (for the Chief Executive) and 2008 (for LegCo).

The NPCSC interpretation and decision were regarded as obstacles to the democratic development of Hong Kong by the democratic camp, and were criticized for lack of consultation with Hong Kong residents. On the other hand, the pro-government camp considered them to be in compliance with the legislative intent of the Basic Law and in line with the One country, two systems principle, and hoped that this would put an end to the controversies on development of political structure in Hong Kong.

The The first 1 July protest took place in 2003 after the SARS outbreak also in response to the anti-subversive legislation and general dissatisfaction towards the Hong Kong Government. Fear of the loss of freedom of speech and other freedoms, as well as a general dissatisfaction against the Government, prompted a mass protest of hundreds of thousands of people on July 1, 2003. The planners originally wanted all four football courts in Victoria Park, but all courts were booked for a pro-Beijing festival and fair. The organizers originally predicted only 20,000 demonstrators would participate. The actual number ranged from 350,000 (as quoted by the police) to 700,000 (as quoted by protesters) and even 1,000,000 (quoted from a pro-Falun Gong agency), but the generally accepted figure is 500,000, which is just less than one tenth of the population. Their route stretched from Victoria Park football field through Causeway and Central to the Government's Central offices. Nonetheless, the large numbers meant that people were still starting the march as late as 10PM.
In dissatisfaction with the NPC's interpretation of Basic Law that universal suffrage was impossible for Chief Executive and Legislative Council elections in 2007 and 2008 respectively, and in fear of the loss of freedom of speech fueled by the heated patriotic debate and abrupt pause of popular radio programmes allegedly suppressed by Beijing authorities, another similar protest march occurred on the same day in 2004. The peaceful march took the same route from the previous year from Victoria Park through Hennessy road and by Admiralty and Central MTR stations, and ended at the Government's Central Offices. The numbers were estimated to be 530,000 by organisers, whilst the police gave numbers around 200,000. The probable lower numbers were attributed to the fact that it was the hottest 1 July ever recorded, at 34 degrees Celsius. Another suggested reason is that a large number of people stayed up late until the early morning to watch the Euro 2004 match between Portugal and the Netherlands. There was a noticeable fall in the general anger of the crowds when compared to the 2003 march, attributed to the fact that the Hong Kong economy was showing signs of recovery, and the dissolution of Article 23.
However, there was much criticism as to the slogan for the 2004 protest by some Beijing bureaucrats and pro-Beijing political parties. The phrase "Return power to the people" was particularly inflammatory because it implied that power was taken away from the people, which in fact they never had. Some pro-democracy political leaders such as Lau Chin-shek had considered changing the phrase, but many criticized this move as it was seen to be satisfying Beijing. The organizers kept the phrase. The planners instructed the protesters to wear white, as a sign of democracy. Furthermore, unlike the previous year, the protest march started as soon as the football field venues were 80% full, causing the protest to start half hour earlier. Learning from the previous year, planning was much more smooth, allowing more of the road to be open as well as starting earlier. Most of the protesters had finished their march by 7PM, ending earlier than the previous year.
In 2005 a follow up protest was attempted, however only about 21,000 people participated in the march, as the economy had come back since 2003. That led some people to claim that many Hong Kong protesters from the first two marches care more about their economic livelihood than political reform.

Resignation of Tung Chee-hwa and interpretation of Basic Law

Main article: Tung Chee Hwa's resignation

On March 12, 2005, the Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, resigned. Tung's position is now filled by Donald Tsang, formerly the Chief Secretary for Administration — a popular bow tie-wearing career civil servant who was educated at Harvard and received a knighthood for his service during British colonial rule. Immediately after Tung's resignation, Tsang assumed the role of acting Chief Executive, which he stepped down from prior to putting himself forward as a candidate for the post of Chief Executive. Tsang was subsequently chosen to be the next Chief Executive, and his term will expire in 2007.

After Tung's resignation, there was dispute over the length of the term of the Chief Executive. To most local legal professionals, the length is obviously five years, under whatever circumstances. It should also be noted that the wording of the Basic Law on the term of the Chief Executive is substantially different from the articles in the PRC constitution concerning the length of term of the president, premier, etc. Nonetheless, legal experts from the mainland said it is a convention a successor will only serve the remainder of the term if the position is vacant because the predecessor resigned. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress exercise its right to interpret the Basic Law, and affirm that the successor will only serve the remainder of the term. Many in Hong Kong saw this an adverse impact on the rule of law in the territory, as the Central People's Government interpret the Basic Law to serve its need, that is, a two-year probation for Tsang, instead of a five-year term.

Political Reform Package

On December 4 2005, people in Hong Kong demonstrated against Donald Tsang's proposed reform package, before a vote on December 21. Turnout estimates ranged from 63,000 to 250,000.

The march has sent a strong message to hesitant pro-democracy legislators to follow public opinion. The pro-government camp claims to have collected 700,000 signatures on a petition backing Mr. Tsang's reform package. This number, however, is unlikely to influence pro-democracy lawmakers. The Reform Package debate has seen the return of key political figure and former Chief Secretary Anson Chan, raising speculations of a possible run up for the 2007 Chief Executive election, though she dismissed having a personal interest in standing for the next election.

In an attempt to win last minutes votes from moderate pro-democracy lawmakers, the government amended its reform package on December 19 by proposing a gradual cut in district councils appointed members. Their number would be reduced from 102 to 68 by 2008. It would then be decided in 2011 whether to scrap the remaining seats in 2012 or in 2016. The amendment has been seen as a reluctant response by Donald Tsang to give satisfaction to the democratic demands of the December 4 demonstrations. The move has been qualified "Too little, too late" by pan-democrates in general.

On December 21, 2005, the reform political reform package was vetoed by the pro-democracy lawmakers. Chief Secretary Rafael Hui openly criticised pro-democracy Martin Lee and Bishop Zen for blocking the proposed changes.

Nationality and citizenship

Chinese nationality

''Main article: Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China

Before and after the handover, the PRC recognises the ethnic Chinese people in Hong Kong as its citizens. The PRC issues Home Return Permits for them to enter the mainland China.

Most residents of Hong Kong are PRC citizens, by virtue of the [PRC Memorandum] to the Sino-British Joint Declaration. Hong Kong issues the [HKSAR passport] through its Immigration Department to all PRC citizens who are permanent residents of Hong Kong (permanent residency implies that they have the right of abode in Hong Kong) .

The HKSAR passport is not the same as the ordinary PRC passport (which is issued to residents of mainland China), and only permanent residents of Hong Kong who are PRC citizens are eligible to apply. To acquire the status of permanent resident one has to have "ordinarily resided" in Hong Kong for a period of seven years and adopted Hong Kong as their permanent home. Therefore, citizenships rights enjoyed by residents of mainland China and residents Hong Kong are differentiated even though both hold the same citizenship.

Interestingly, new immigrants from mainland China (still posses the Chinese Citizenship) to Hong Kong are denied from getting PRC passport from the mainland authorities, and are not eligible to apply for an HKSAR passport. They usually hold the Document of Identity (DI) as the travel document, until the permanent resident status is obtained after seven years of residence.

Naturalisation as a PRC Citizen is common among ethnic Chinese people in Hong Kong who are not PRC Citizens. Some who have surrendered their PRC citizenship, usually those who have emigrated to foreign countries and have retained the permanent resident status, can apply for PRC citizenship at the Immigration Department, though they must renounce their original nationality in order to acquire the PRC citizenship.

Naturalisation of persons of non-Chinese ethnicity are rare. A notable example is Michael Rowse, a permanent resident of Hong Kong and the current Director-General of Investment Promotion of Hong Kong Government, naturalised and became a PRC citizen, for the offices of secretaries of the policy bureaux are only open to PRC citizens.

British nationality

''Main article: British nationality law and Hong Kong

Hong Kong residents who were born in Hong Kong in the colonial era (about 3.5 million) could acquire the British Dependent Territories citizenship (BDTC). HK residents who were not born in Hong Kong could also naturalize as a BDTC before the handover. To allow them to retain the status of British national while preventing a possible flood of immigrants from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom created a new nationality status, British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) that Hong Kong British Dependent Territories citizens could apply for. Holders of the BN(O) passports, however, have no right of abode in the UK. See British nationality law and Hong Kong for details.

British National (Overseas) status was given effect by the [Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986]. Article 4(1) of the Order provided that on and after 1 July 1987, there would be a new form of British nationality, the holders of which would be known as British Nationals (Overseas). Article 4(2) of the Order provided that adults and minors who had a connection to Hong Kong were entitled to make an application to become British Nationals (Overseas) by registration.

Becoming a British National (Overseas) was therefore not an automatic or involuntary process and indeed many eligible people who had the requisite connection with Hong Kong never applied to become British Nationals (Overseas). Acquisition of the new status had to be voluntary and therefore a conscious act. To make it involuntary or automatic would have been contrary to the assurances given to the Chinese government which led to the words "eligible to" being used in paragraph (a) of the [United Kingdom Memorandum] to the Sino-British Joint Declaration. The deadline for applications passed in 1997. Any person who failed to register as a British Nationals (Overseas) by 1 July 1997 and would thereby be rendered stateless, automatically became a British Overseas citizen under [article 6(1) of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986]. However, former BDTCs (also holding PRC citizenship) who failed to register as a BN(O) became solely PRC citizens on 1 July 1997.

After the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, people urged the British Government to grant full British citizenship to all Hong Kong BDTCs — but this request was never accepted. However, it was considered necessary to devise a British Nationality Selection Scheme to enable some of the population to obtain British citizenship. The United Kingdom made provision to grant citizenship to 50,000 families whose presence was important to the future of Hong Kong under the [British Nationality Act (Hong Kong) 1990].

After reunification, all PRC citizens with the right of abode in Hong Kong (holding Hong Kong permanent identity cards) are eligible to apply for the HKSAR passport issued by the Hong Kong Immigration Department. As the number of visa-free-visit destinations of the HKSAR passport surprassed the BN(O) passport and the application fee for the former is lower, the HKSAR passport is becoming more popular among residents of Hong Kong. However many Hong Kong people who are eligible for both HKSAR and BN(O) passports have applied for both passports, as they are both PRC citizen and British National (Overseas).

Hong Kong residents who were not born in Hong Kong (and had not naturalised as a BDTC) could only apply for the Certificate of Identity (CI) from the colonial government as travel document. They are not issued (by neither the British nor Chinese authorities) after handover. Former CI holders holding PRC Citizenship (e.g. born in mainland China or Macau) and are permanent residents of Hong Kong are now eligible for the HKSAR passports, making the HKSAR passports more popular.

Recent changes to India's Citizenship Act, 1955 (see Indian nationality law) will also allow some [children of Indian origin, born in Hong Kong after 7 January 2004], who have a solely BN(O) parent to automatically acquire British Overseas citizenship at birth under the provisions for reducing statelessness in [article 6(2) or 6(3) of the Hong Kong (British Nationality) Order 1986]. If they have acquired no other nationality after birth, they will be entitled to [subsequently register for full British citizenship] with right of abode in the UK.

Political parties and elections

The following election results include names of political parties. See for additional information about parties the List of political parties in Hong Kong. An overview on elections and election results is included in Elections in Hong Kong.

The four main political parties are as follows. Each holds a significant portion of LegCo. Twelve members are registered as affiliated with the DAB, ten with the Liberal Party, nine with the Democratic Party and six with the Civic Party. There are also many unofficial party members: politicians who are members of political parties but have not registered such status in their election applications. There are two major blocs: the democratic camp and the pro-Beijing camp.

Civic Party (Kuan Hsin-chi, chairman)
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) (Ma Lik, chairman)
Democratic Party (Lee Wing Tat, chairman)
Liberal Party (James Tien Pei-chun, chairman)
Others include:
Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (Frederick Fung Kin-kee, chairman)
Citizens Party (Alex Chan Kai-chung, chairperson)
The Frontier (Emily Lau Wai-hing, convenor)
Hong Kong Progressive Alliance (Ambrose Lau Hon-chuen, chairman) (merged with the DAB 16 February 2005)
Hong Kong Frontline (Mr. Chong, chairman)
Political pressure groups and leaders
[Chinese General Chamber of Commerce]
[Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong]
Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions ([Lau Chin-shek], President; [Lee Cheuk-yan], General Secretary)
[Federation of Hong Kong Industries]
Hong Kong Federation of Students
International Action
Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions  ([Cheng Yiu-tong], President)
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China (Szeto Wah, Chairman)
Hong Kong and Kowloon Trade Union Council
[Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce]
[Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union]([Cheung Man-kwong], President)
Liberal Democratic Federation (Hu Fa-kuang, Chairman)
See also








Life in
Hong Kong 

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flag of Hong Kong
foreign relations of Hong Kong
One country, two systems
District Council of Hong Kong
Politics of the People's Republic of China
External links
[HKSAR Government web site]
[Executive Council]
[Legislative Council]
[Olympic Watch (Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games in a Free and Democratic Country) on the status of Hong Kong]

 

 

 
Political parties and groups in Hong Kong *
 


 Pro-democracy: 
April Fifth Action | Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL) | Civic Party (CP) | Democratic Party (DP) | Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) | Neighbourhood and Workers Service Centre (NWSC) | The Frontier 

Pro-Beijing / Pro-government: 
 Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) | Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) | Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions (FLU) | Liberal Party (LP) | The Alliance

* Represented in the Legislative Council







 



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