Army,
to garrison Special Administrative Region provides a
potential for a
flashpoint between
the
power of the
authorities of the PRC (unused to judicial control) and the
courts of Hong Kong.
Fourthly, there is the Confucian approach to law to
consider. China repeatedly denounces Western notions of
human rights and the rule of law. In doing so, it draws not
simply upon Party ideas on these subjects but upon the deep wells of Chinese philosophical writing dating back to the Hundred Philosophers and particularly to Confucius. Neatly encapsulated, the Confucian philosophy of law is about
communities not individuals; about obligations, not rights;
and about the rule of virtue determined by powerful men,
the rule of law.
7
error to
not
8
It is said that Hong Kong is no longer a purely
Confucian society. That it has been imbued with 150 years of
a different philosophical tradition. Certainly, opinion polls amongst ordinary people of Hong Kong suggest the acceptance of many of the basic premises upon which the colonial administration has governed the Territory.
the assume that, with It may therefore be an departure of that administration, Confucian values will again predominate, unaffected by the colonial experience. Nevertheless, it would seem inevitable that Hong Kong's re-entry into China will tend to accentuate Confucian values, some of which may be less enthusiastic for basic rights and
them at the rule of law than the lip service paid to
international meetings would otherwise suggest.
Fifthly, there is the simple fact that the laws of Hong
to the laws of the PRC. The Basic Law
Kong are subject to the laws of
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