HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL
5 July 1989
香港立法局———————————一九八九年七月五日
39
The following are the principal areas of concern which must be addressed.
The stationing of troops
After seeing how the People's Liberation Army slaughtered its own people in its own capital, no one in Hong Kong would feel secure with these troops stationed in Hong Kong.
The FAC accepts this but only recommends that "the British Government should make clear to the Chinese Government the strength of feeling in Hong Kong against any stationing of People's Liberation Army troops in Hong Kong."
This is not good enough.
I suggest that the British Government should seek to secure the agreement of the Chinese Government that troops will not be stationed in Hong Kong. This matter cannot be dealt with only through the Basic Law, but requires an amending of the Joint Declaration.
The Basic Law
I accept the view of the FAC that the relationship between the Basic Law and the People's Republic of China (PRC) constitution should be clarified. But I suggest that the correct approach is to stipulate in writing, whether in the Basic Law or in the constitution, those provisions of the constitution which are inapplicable to the HKSAR.
I suggest that it must be stated clearly that the four cardinal principles set out in the Preamble to the PRC constitution, including, for example, the insistence on the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, would not be applicable to the HKSAR.
As to the power of interpretation of the Basic Law, it is obvious that the FAC is reluctant to leave the final right to interpret the Basic Law with the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and has therefore proposed the setting up of a Joint Constitutional Court.
This deserves serious attention.
But a simpler method may be to ask the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress to delegate irrevocably its interpretative powers of the Basic Law to the courts of the HKSAR in keeping with our common law system.