effect, emphasizing "two systems" at the expense of "one country") and that the Declaration set out the sum of the relationship between Hong Kong and the PRC; every question
regarding that relationship could only be decided according to specific wording in it. At its more extreme, it was argued that "high degree of autonomy except in foreign or defence affairs" meant autonomy except in those respects, and that no provision of the PRC Constitution except Article 31 should apply to Hong Kong. There was also a tendency to assume that since the common law was to continue to apply in the SAR, the Joint Declaration should be interpreted and implemented in accordance with common law (by which was meant Western)
Western) concepts of government and legal policy [12]
10.
Flexible as the PRC might claim to be as regards particular policies in implementing its concept of "one country two systems", it was "absolutely unequivocal on the principle of safeguarding China's sovereignty, unity and. territorial integrity"[13] However special its status
would be, the Hong Kong SAR was to become part of a unitary state, not a federal one.
A special administrative region is but one level of the PRC's local administration; and the SAR being "directly under" the CPG, meant that its status would be on a par with provinces, autonomous regions. and municipalities directly under the CPG and that it would not be subject to any provincial jurisdiction. The CPG would manage affairs concerning sovereignty and overall national interests [14] in respect of the SAR as well as in
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