HONG　KONG　MODEL　UNDER　THE　BASIC　LAW　PRACTICE　OF　THE　"ONE　COUNTRY,　TWO　SYSTEMS"　PRINCIPLE　IN　CHINA

甘超英

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　　#a#I.　 THE RISE OF THE "ONE COUNTRY, TWO SYSTEMS" POLICY#/a#1. The Rooting Meaning of the"One Country, Two Systems" Policy#/a#The "one country, two systems" policy is the basic principleof the Chinese government to handle with the problems of the reintegration ofthe country. As other newly raised policies in China after the crush of theso-called "Gang of Four" in the Autumn 1976, this Policy wasoriginally brought forward formally by Mr. Deng Xiaoping. He said in 1984 thatthe "one country, two system" means "the people living in HongKong and in Taiwan practicethe capitalist systems while in the mainland the billion of the Chinese remainsin the socialist system but all in the territory of the People''s Republic of China".
　　
　　The meaning of the Policy set forth by Mr. Deng is that the specialadministrative regions would be founded, if necessary, in areas such as in Hong Kong, Macao or in Taiwan by theCentral Government. The regions as such would come directly under the CentralGovernment, under which the regions would be allowed to enjoy a high degree of autonomicauthorities on executive, legislative, and judicatory aspects, except for thoseforeign and defensive affairs. In the special administrative regions it willkeep both the given capitalist system and the ways of life untouched for 50years, that is, the socialist system and policies will not be introduced intothe regions at least for 50 years.
　　
　　To get more accurate perspectives on the Policy or the Principle, thefollowing explanations to it would be necessary and helpful:
　　
　　--　 The Principle means firstly the tenets of adheringto the consolidation of the nation and of upholding the sovereignty of thestate, under which the relationship of the Center and the regions shall behandled with in a suitable manner. Because of the historical complex, theChinese Government lost the jurisdictions to Hong Kong,Macao, and Taiwan for years. But that doesn''tmean that Chinalost the sovereign rights upon them. Therefore, the regression of them to China cannot bedeemed as the regaining but the resumption of sovereignty instead. Under this precondition,Hong Kong and the like can be given anautonomic position and the rights specialized in a special law. This is whatthe suitable manner means.
　　
　　--　 The state allows the special administrative regionsto have a high degree of autonomic rights. Except for those powers relating tothe sovereignty of the state and those powers for affairs which must be settledthrough the conducts of the Central Government, the autonomic rights includeadministrative, legislative, independent judicial and final appeal powers. Thiskind of autonomic rights are much higher in degree and much more in number thanthose enjoyed by the self-government of national autonomous areas within theMainland China, in which the self-governments cannot have at least thejurisdiction on final appeals.
　　
　　--　 As a special region, the previous capitalist systemand way of life will remain unchanged at least for 50 years. The unchangedaspects include mainly the social system, the economic system, and the way oflife. There are three things on the meaning of unchangeableness ought to beexplained further. The unchangeableness means at first, of course, that theCentral Government will not take any measure to change those systems. On theother hand, it doesn''t mean that those systems could not be changed by Hong Kong people themselves. Every system will be changedand developed by its own disciplines in the course of time, as it is a naturalprocess of mankind and could not be ordered fundamentally by the will ofmankind. It is theoretically to saythat these systems will be developed under the willing of Hong Kong people, not of the Mainland. The second thing refers to themanner of the self-change. Apart from the self-change being not allowed for itsagainst the Mainland in Hong Kong, it can neither be changed for socialism atleast in 50 years even if there were a strong ambition or appeal from the sideof Hong Kong, for the Basic Law has safeguarded to Hong Kong people that thecapitalism will remain untouched for that length of time. If there were some Hong Kong people who wanted to change the system as awhole into the socialist one, it is the Basic Law on its Article 18(4) willblock this attempt. Because that clause provides the means to prevent theattempt. The third approach isrelated to the would-be changes before the regression. If there were somechanges before the big day on July 1, 1997, they should not affect theimplementation of the articles of the Joint Declaration and the otheragreements between China andGreat Britain.If the changes impacted these agreements, the Chinese Government would haverights to response or even to retaliate. There were in fact several suchexamples happened before the big day. About 50 years period, asMr. Deng said when he met British Prime Minister, Mrs. Thatcher on December1984 that if the first 50-year had passed unchanged at the open-door''s policy,we could be sure the unchangeableness in the following 50-year, and so was forHong Kong. That is, it is unnecessaryto make changes on the matter of the status of Hong Kong,if it is proved successful in maintaining the existing systems.
　　
　　--　 The legal system of Hong Kongmostly remains unchanged. This means that the judicial principles and roughstructure of the courts will not be changed except for the jurisdiction offinal appeal, resources of legal authority, some legal norms and laws in forceafter 1997. As Article 81(2) provides: "The judicial system previously practicedin Hong Kong shall be maintained except forthose changes consequent upon the establishment of the Court of Final Appeal ofthe Hong Kong Special Administrative Region". It would be the necessaryexception to the 50-year unchangeableness policy. The Mainland laws listed atthe Annex III are laws relating to maintaining the national sovereignty whichmust be implemented in Hong Kong. And somelegal expressions in Hong Kong laws must be changed when the British crown hasnot performed the role of the highest authority of Hong Kong.
　　
　　--　 The administration and the legislature are formed bythe local people of Hong Kong, which is so-called the norm of Hong Kong peoplegoverns Hong Kong. This emphasizes theself-restraint of the Central Government not to send missions to take partdirectly into the executive and legislative jobs in Hong Kong. The local people here include Chinese as well as theresidents with nationalities of other countries. Within these two parts ofresidents Chinese will have a decisive and positive position either by law orby the practice. However, most of those Chinese residents who master the powersought to be under the patriotic standard or criterion, the main requirement ofwhich is to support the resumption of the Chinese sovereignty to Hong Kong andnot to do any thing impairing the prosperous and stable situation of Hong Kong regardless of their political attitude to thesocialist belief. In fact, the governanceof Hong Kong by its residents is the keyguarantee of the self-government, for the continuance of the legal system musthave the maintenance of its way of life as basis. Only will the people who livetherein have a common sense about their legal and political systems. As Cassirer said, the various forms of human culture would becombined not by their unification in nature but by their uniformity in thebasic tasks.
　　#a#2. The attitude of the #/a#Chinese Leading Circle on the Problem ofReintegration since 1950''sIn 1949, when the Chinese People''s Liberation Army swept all the oldregime remains out of the country, the troops didn''t march into Hong Kong and Macao. Before and at1950''s, there was indeed an idea to go over the Shenzhen Riverto liberate the people there. But the leaders, such as Mao Zhedong and ZhouEnlai had framed a policy to the question of Hong Kongeven before the establishment of the new government. Mao said on January 1949:
　　
　　The affairs onthe Mainland are relatively easy to handle with, that is, we can simplydispatch the armies to solve them. It is more difficult to deal with theaffairs at the islands. It needs another flexible way to manage or by the meansof peaceful interim. It is, therefore, in a long run to deal. At such asituation, solving the questions of Hong Kong and Macao in a rash manner has lost itsreasonable basis. In contrary, it would be more wise to make the use of thepositions of them, especially of Hong Kong, todevelop the overseas relations as well as the imports and exports of Mainland.In general, we should make decisions depending on the run of the conditions.
　　
　　This statement was in fact the significant decision of the CommunistParty on the matter of Hong Kong and Macao.On December 19 of the year, Overseas Chinese Daily of Hong Kong had in frontpage a front title: Mao Zhedong has pledged to the peace of Hong Kong, and British has promised to acknowledge the New Governmentof China.From the time on, the Chinese Government has shaped a persistent stand onmatters of Hong Kong: Hong Kong is a territory belonging to China, China doesnot accept all the unequal pacts pressed on China by the imperialist powers inthe last century, China asserts to solve the questions through negotiations atthe proper times, and the current situations should be maintained before the occasionsof agreements achieve. In 1960, when some peopleoutside China questioned theattitudes of China to HongKong and Macao,the Chinese Government overtly declared this policy to the world.
　　
　　The policy had its courses in many respects. First, it was the need ofpolitics. On September 1949, Mao Zhedong stated at the first meeting of theNational Committee of the Chinese People''s Political Consultative Conference(CPPCC) that the Chinese Government would solve the historical questions bypeaceful means. To keep this promise and to make it understood by the peoplesin Hong Kong and Macao,the peaceful policy was necessary. Secondly, Chinaneeded a peaceful international environment to break the anti-China block setby the USAwho was the head of that alliance. Hong Kongwas a gap at the block while the British Government hoped to maintain itsrights in it. So Premier Zhou brought forward a policy to develop theSino-British relationship and to try for keeping peace and cooperation with theGreat Britain. The most importance tocarry out the policy was among the economic affairs. When China endured the great pressures out of the USA and the USSRin 50''s and 60''s, Hong Kong was the sole largest passage of China to theworld. China obtained almostall of foreign currencies, techniques, information, capitals and talents itneeded through Hong Kong, which couldn''t bereplaced by other cities for its position at that time.