{"id":49418,"date":"2015-09-19T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=49418 "},"modified":"2015-09-19T23:59:00","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T23:59:00","slug":"49418-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=49418","title":{"rendered":"Is Hong Kong\u2019s Top Official Above the Law?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2015\/38\/201591911DA9A85-90E6-4AEE-94DB-A41F75ADEADE_w640_r1_s.jpg\" alt=\"201591911DA9A85-90E6-4AEE-94DB-A41F75ADEADE_w640_r1_s.jpg (640&#215;360)\" \/><br \/><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>FILE &#8211; Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying arrives at a news conference which was held as part of the National People&#8217;s Congress, the country&#8217;s parliament, in Beijing, March 6, 2015.<\/div><div><\/div><div><\/div><div>September 18, 2015 9:17 AM<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Nearly one year after pro-democracy protests riled Hong Kong&#8217;s politics, the territory&#8217;s top official is coming under criticism for suggesting that his position &#8220;transcends&#8221; the other branches of government.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying&#8217;s remarks this week endorsed the views of a top Beijing official who said that the chief executive was in a &#8220;special legal status which transcends the territory&#8217;s executive, legislative and judiciary branches.&#8221;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People&#8217;s Government in Hong Kong, also denied that Hong Kong&#8217;s system endorses the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers, saying such concept applies to sovereign states, not Hong Kong.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Zhang&#8217;s comments immediately triggered an uproar in the former British colony a little more than a week before the anniversary of last year&#8217;s massive Occupy Central protests that saw thousands turn out in the streets for weeks protesting Beijing&#8217;s plan for electing Hong Kong&#8217;s next chief executive.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>The election decision, which said only Beijing-approved candidates could participate, and limited the field to three candidates, was taken as the latest sign of eroding freedoms in the former British colony.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>When Hong Kong was returned to China from the British in 1987 it was guaranteed freedoms that do not exist in mainland China under what is called the &#8220;one country two systems&#8221; model. Key parts of these differences include Hong Kong&#8217;s freewheeling capitalistic market system and freedom of the press and speech.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>The comments made by both Leung and Zhang highlight the deep divide that exists between those that feel the central government in Beijing should determine how Hong Kong&#8217;s democracy develops and those who feel it is a matter for the port city&#8217;s citizens to decide.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>They also highlight differences over basic ideas such as the rule of law.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Albert Ho, a member of Hong Kong&#8217;s Legislative Council says few Hong Kongers see eye to eye with Leung and Zhang.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&#8220;Everybody should be equal before the law. Obviously he [Leung] should be subject to the Basic Law and to the laws in Hong Kong. So, I think what he [Zhang] said is really nonsense,&#8221; said Ho.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.voanews.com\/content\/is-hong-kong-top-official-above-the-law\/2969042.html\">For detail please visit here<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;Zhang Xiaoming, director of the Liaison Office of the Central People&amp;#8217;s Government in Hong Kong, also denied that Hong Kong&amp;#8217;s system endorses the separation of executive, legislative and judicial powers, saying such concept applies to sovereign states, not Hong Kong.&lt;\/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}