PART VII: CONCLUSION
47.
It is not the purpose of this article to attempt to foretell how the Basic Law will work in practice as the "constitution" for the SAR as a particular local government of the PRC. It is, however, pertinent to consider briefly possible developments and certain aspects of the implementation of
of the Basic Law.
48.
It remains uncertain in which areas the Central Authorities will seek to exercise power directly in, or in relation to, the SAR. Both article 17 and article 158 of the Basic Law refer to "affairs within the responsibility of the Central Authorities and ...the relationship between the Central Authorities and the Region". In terms, "affairs within the responsibility of the Central Authorities" should mean foreign affairs and defence; but traditional thinking on sovereignty and national unity and references by Chinese officials to matters "affecting the nation as a whole which should be managed by the Central Government not by local' administrative regions" and to the SAR not "being without guidance and even necessary intervention from the Central
[72] Government" are indicative of the liklihood that the Central Authorities will assert a more extensive right of intervention under the umbrella of "affairs affecting the nation as a whole" than appears expressly in the Basic Law, and that the CPG will call in aid its authority as the highest organ of state administration under article 85 of the PRC Constitution and the requirement that the Chief Executive shall implement its directives [73].
47
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