Legal Daily June 15, 1992 Page 4
Let's refute such saying as
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"the Basic Law is subject to changes before 1997 " By Wang Wen
The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (Hereinafter " Basic Law") was adopted and promulgated by teh 7th NPC on April 4th, 1990 and it comes into force on July 1, 1997. But recently, there has been a hubbub in Hongkong saying that "the Basic Law is subject to changes before 1997 ". Such kind of saying originated from a British official in charge who was visiting Hongkong and who wanted to chime in with such demand of a number of Hongkong people as speeding up democracy process in Hongkong by increasing the number of seats for the Legislative Council in 1995 in defiance of China's repeated statements which says the Basic Law is not a law subject to changes before 1997. But that official still persisted in saying on a number of occasions that the Basic Law was subject to changes before 1997. Indeed, the Basic Law does not include phrases about the election of the Legislative Council of 1995 but formation of the said Legislative Council is governed by Annex II according to Article 68 of the Basic Law. Annex II reads: the Legislative Council shall be formed in accordance with the " Decision of the NPC of PRC on the method for the Formation of the First Government and the First Legislative Council of the HK Special Administrative Region ( Hereinafter the Decision "). And the Decision stipulates expressly: The Legislative Council of the HK Special Administrative Region shall be composed of 60 members and in its first term with 20 members returned by geographical constituencies. Meantime, it also stipulates: If the composition of the last HK Legislative Council before the establishment of the HK Special Administrative Region is in conformity with the relevant provisions of this Decision and the Basic Law, those of its members may become members of the first Legislative Council of the Region. Such is so-called arrangement for " through train" in order that consistence of the political systems of the governments before and after 1997 and a smooth trasition can be achieved which enables the members of the last Legislative Council of Hongkong to become members of the first Legislative Council of the Region by "Through Train ". However, such members should be in comformity with the relevant provisions of this Decision and the Basic Law as mentioned above. A number of people wanted to achieve the goal as increasing the seats of the Legislative Council returned from geographical constituencies and so proposed amendment to the Basic Law.
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The answer to this question should be negative. First, when we begin with the theories for the Constitution, the Basic Law lays down the basic system to be applied to the Special Administrative REgion of Hongkong, which has incoporated the central government's basic policy toward Hongkong based upon the principle of one country and two systems" in the law. Therefore, the Basic Law belongs to a kind of law of constitutional nature. As the Constitution and the law of consitutional nature is different from the common law in nature, functions and level of effectiveness, stricter procedure must be followed about their formulation and alternations in any country with an aim to achieve stability of their effectiveness and thus