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The contents of the Basic Law are, of course, more than those mentionedabove. However, all of these 14 points are guaranteed not only by the Basic Lawitself, but also by the Joint Declaration -- a legal document withinternational character. This is the reason why we call them as"rights" of Hong Kong.
III. #a#THEPOLITICAL STRUCTURE PRESCRIPTED BY THE BASIC LAW#/a#What the Hong Kong Basic Law offers could be named as the "HongKong Model". It could be but expressed simply as "dominance byadministrative" principle. All the political structure of Hong Kong was designed to carry out the principle.
#a#1. The Chief Executive#/a#To replace the British Governor, the Basic Law provides the highestpolitical position in Hong Kong to the Chief Executive who is the head of Hong Kong and represents the Region. Different to theBritish Governor, the Chief Executive is not the highest deputy of the Centerin Hong Kong, but the highest deputy of Hong Kongpeople, either to the Center or to the world. This kind of design is toincarnate and symbolize the creed of Hong Kong Governed by Hong Kong People,which is the principal target of establishing the Special AdministrativeRegion.
However, there is a danger for the Center, purely by such adesignation, that the Chief Executive were going to do what the Center wouldnot expect to or what would lead Hong Kong divorced from the whole or what thetendency of such a centrifugal would be resulted from. Hong Kong is after all apart within the territory of China in spite of beingan area enjoying the autonomy in high degree. For the sake of sovereignty, theBasic Law is contained with three firewalls. One of them is provided at Annex Iof the Basic Law, according to which the Chief Executive should be selected byan Election Committee, not by the universal election at least before 2007. Themembers of the Election Committee come from every corner of Hong Kong,including businessmen, professions, labors, members of the Legislative Councilof Hong Kong, Hong Kong deputies to the NPCand to the CPPCC, etc. The composing structure of the Election Committeeensures the rights and the control of the Center will not be breached, for mostof them are intimates or patriots of the Center with the belief ofreunification, who will select their resemblance to the post of ChiefExecutive. The second firewall is built at the Basic Law itself. In Article 44,the Law says that the Chief Executive should be a permanent resident of theRegion with no right of abode in any foreign country. That this norm waswritten down in the Law reflected the countercharge of the Chinese Governmentto the measure adopted by the last Governor Sir Chris Patten that Great Britain gave 50,000 Hong Kong families therights to live in Great Britain. The counter-measure in Article 44,avoiding the danger of “double loyalty” of the head of the Region, guaranteesthe legal loyalty of the Chief Executive to the Chinese Government. At last, the Basic Lawprovides in Article 45 that in 50 years of the Basic Law in effect, the ChiefExecutive is capable to take office just after he gets the appointment from theCentral Government.
Apart from being the head of Hong Kong,the Chief Executive is also the head of Hong Kong Government. He or her ownsthe paper powers and functions similar like an American president. Article 48of the Basic Law grants him powers as below:
⑴ To lead the government of the Region;
⑵ To be responsible for the implementationof the Basic Law and other laws which, in accordance with the Law, apply in theRegion;
⑶ To sign bills passed by the LegislativeCouncil and to promulgate laws; and to report the budgets and final accounts tothe Central Government for the record;
⑷ To decide on government policies and toissue executive orders;
⑸ To nominate and to report to the Centerfor appointment or removal the principal officials as Secretaries and DeputySecretaries of Departments, Directors of Bureaus, Commissioner AgainstCorruption, Director of Audit, Commissioner of Police, Director of Immigration andCommissioner of Customs and Excise;
⑹ To appoint or remove judges of thecourts at all levels in accordance with legal procedures;
⑺ To appoint or remove holders of publicoffice in accordance with legal procedures;
⑻ To implement the directives issued bythe Center in respect of the relevant matters provided for in the Basic Law;
⑼ To conduct, on behalf of the Hong KongGovernment, external affairs and other affairs as authorized by the CentralAuthorities;
⑽ To approve the introduction of motionsregarding revenues or expenditure to the Legislative Council;
⑾ To decide, in the light of security andvital public interests, whether government officials or other personnel incharge of government affairs should testify or give evidence before theLegislative Council or its committees;
⑿ To pardon persons convicted of criminaloffences or commute their penalties; and
⒀ To handle petitions and complaints.
These prescriptions show that the powers of the Chief Executive mix thepowers and functions of American president, British premier, and even Frenchpresident in one. The Chief Executive can return a bill back to the LegislativeCouncil (Lego) for reconsideration. The Lego can overthrow the executive vetoby two-thirds majority. If so, the Chief must sign the bill and promulgate itas the law of the Region. If the Chief Executive refuses to sign a bill passedthe second time, or if the Legislative Council refuses to pass a budget or anyother important bill introduced by the Government, and if consensus cannot bereached in cases above, the Chief Executive may dissolve the LegislativeCouncil. But he or she may wield the power of dissolution only once in his orher 5-year term of office. The incumbent Chief Executive, Mr. Tong Chee-hwahasn''t exercised this power since 1997. Compared with the formerBritish governors, the authority of the Chief Executive is cut down. He or shehas no capability, as the governors have, to dissolve legislative bodies and torefuse bills just through their own wills. Because of such a change in the relationshipof the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council, one kind of checks andbalances conviction has been set up in Hong Kong.
There is an organ, the Executive Council, subjected directly to theChief Executive, which plays a very important role in the process ofdecision-making of the head. It is the successor of the British ExecutiveCouncil with almost the same functions. The Council is a consultant organ, andits members are appointed and removed by the Chief Executive himself among theprincipal officials of the executive authorities, members of the LegislativeCouncil and public figures. The office term of it is as long as the ChiefExecutive who appoints them is. That means that most of them are those trustedfollowers of the Chief Executive. The composing number of the Executive Councilis used to being fixed normally about 15 members. Before the Chief Executivemakes important decisions, introduces bills to the legislature, makessubordinate legislation, or dissolves the Legislative Council, he or she shouldconsult the Executive Council. Different from the former relations between thegovernor and his executive council, if the Chief Executive does not accept themajority opinion of the Executive Council, his or her specific reasons against themajority of the Council should be filed for record. Such a design gives theCouncil an ability to perform some kind of control to the Chief Executive. To the British governors,however, that discipline was not the legal mandate that meant a potentresponsibility upon him after the given negative event.
#a#2. The Executive Authorities#/a#The Chief Executive leads the Government of Hong Kong, that is, theexecutive authorities of the Region. There are three highest departments in theexecutive authority. They are Departments of Administration, Finance, andJustice, under which are various bureaus, divisions and commissions. TheSecretary of the Department of Administration is in fact the head of theexecutive authorities and the first deputy Chief Executive when the ChiefExecutive is temporarily out of office. His or her role is much similar asFrench premier. But the office doesn’t not depend on confidence of the Lego.
The Hong Kong Government performs functions as below:
⑴ To formulate and implement policies;
⑵ To conduct administrative affairs;
⑶ To conduct external affairs asauthorized by the Central Government under the Basic Law;
⑷ To draw up and introduce budgets andfinal accounts;
⑸ To draft and introduce bills, motionsand subordinate legislation; and
⑹ To designate officials to sit in on the meetingsof the Legislative Council and to speak on behalf of the Government.
A special feature of the political system is that the foreigners arenow allowed to take in charge of some lower positions in the government, as theRegion was a colony of Great Britain. There are a lot of foreignersliving in and serve to the Region. The new government has reasonable needs tomake use of techniques and experiences of foreign employees. After theregression, British have lost the status of master of Hong Kong and their political importance has been reduced to a role ofserving to a government comprised mainly by Chinese. Only are those enumeratedpositions in the Basic Law, namely the Secretaries and Deputy Secretaries ofDepartments, Directors of Bureaus, Commissioner Against Corruption, Director ofAudit, Commissioner of Police, Director of Immigration and Commissioner ofCustoms and Excise, being required to be Chinese citizens among permanentresidents of the Region with no right of abode in any foreign country. This isunique in the world on the matter of forming method of government.
Although the officials of the Hong Kong Government have duties toanswer the questions before the Legislative Council, neither their appointmentsnor removals rely on the legislature. They are, in truth, the civil servantswith high ranks, appointed by the Chief Executive as heads of departments ofthe government. They will not be removed by political reasons except beingcharged with a crime or a breach of law. The responsibilities they have arepurely legal ones. This design of the Basic Law is to keep the governmentstable enough for an effective economic consideration.
#a#3. The Legislature#/a#The legislature of Hong Kong, namely,the Legislative Council, has 60 members elected separately from functionalconstituencies, the Election Committee, and direct elections. According toAnnex II of the Basic Law, the proportions of each part was in 1998 30-10-20and will be in 2000 30-6-24. At the third term the part of the members from theElection Committee will be totally merged into direct elections, and theproportion share will be 30-30, that is, 30 members will be elected indirectlyby the functional constituencies and at the same time the other 30 membersdirectly by the voters. After 2007, if there is a need to amend the provisionsof Annex II, such amendments must be made with the endorsement of a two-thirdsmajority of all the members of the Legislative Council and the consent of theChief Executive, and they shall be reported to the Standing Committee of theNPC for the record. This complex is designed for a smooth transition from thearbitrary management under the British governors to a democratic order by thepeople of Hong Kong. By the way, the design isalso for the adaptation of Hong Kong people tothe turning of the dominant rights. After the first parliamentary election of1998, the voice of accelerating the process of direct election has become noisierthan before.
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