TNAG-1397-FCO40-1869-Future-of-Hong-Kong-Basic-Law-1985 — Page 255

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Second, Article 31 of the Constitution provides that the

systems to be instituted in special administrative regions

shall be prescribed by law enacted by the National People's

Congress in the light of the specific conditions'. It means

that Hong Kong's future systems will be free from the

restriction of the Four Basic Principles as written in the

Preamble of the Constitution. The people of Hong Kong take

they have to follow the Preamble

things too hard and think that

as well. As a matter of fact, Article 31 is a special provision.

(At that time, WANG Hanbin said to GU Angran, 'It seems that we

have to write a feature article to explain to the people that

there are special provisions in law'). Meanwhile, Article 62

of the Constitution also provides that the NPC exercises the

function and power of "deciding on the establishment of special

administrative regions and the systems to be instituted there".

It means that it is empowered to decide on the practice of

capitalist system in Hong Kong. Therefore, the practice of

capitalist system in Hong Kong has been prescribed and is allowed

by the Constitution.

From the outset when we studied the Constitution, we had taken

the problems of Taiwan and Hong Kong into consideration. We

opined that we should adopt a pragmatic approach.

As a result,

Article 31 had been included in the Constitution with a view to

consolidating the concept of 'one country, two systems' in the

form of a Constitution. Therefore, the inclusion of Article 31

does not run counter to the Constitution at all; but on the

contrary, it is the Constitution that confers the power (upon

the special administrative regions) to practise 'one country,

two systems'. At that time, we were well aware that socialist

system could not be practised in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's status

quo should be maintained, or else the people of Hong Kong would

be frightened and fled away. The same applies to Taiwan. We

will not liberalise Taiwan by force. Neither would we change

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