Critics say mini-constitution would be contravened by Chinese officers controlling part of new high-speed rail station and enforcing mainland law

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

A Hong Kong government plan to lease part of a new high-speed rail station to China and allow Chinese police to enforce mainland laws has sparked new fears the city is losing its autonomy.



The proposal, which has drawn heavy criticism from pro-democracy lawmakers, would see mainland police patrol Hong Kong for the first time as part of joint immigration checks at a rail terminus in the West Kowloon neighbourhood, possibly in violation of the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

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Chinese police would control roughly one-fifth of the train station, including the waiting areas, most of the train platforms and inside the train cars. Police would also maintain detention cells and an arms cache, according to reports in local media.

The £8.3bn project will cut travel time to the mainland to 48 minutes, down from two hours.

The former British colony was handed back to China 20 years ago but continues to largely govern itself, maintaining a separate common law system and distinct immigration policies.

Many in the city are still reeling from a string of abductions by Chinese police on Hong Kong soil, including a publisher of books critical of the ruling Communist party and a mainland billionaire who has been held incommunicado since January.

“The way they are bending all the rules is just unthinkable,” said Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy MP. “Beijing wants to show it is the sovereign power, and that it is above Hong Kong. They are taking away our right to not be afraid in our own city.

“Hong Kong is already connected very thoroughly in every way to the mainland, this project is just a political tool.”

Mo invoked a speech from the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, who warned in 1996 that Hong Kong’s special status was fragile.

“My anxiety is not that this community’s autonomy would be usurped by Beijing,” said Patten at the time, in an address to the legislative council, “but that it could be given away bit by bit by some people in Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong’s Democratic party also announced its opposition to the plan, but after four pro-democracy MPs were disqualified by a court earlier this month the camp lacks the votes to block the legislation.

The plan is almost certain to face a judicial test in the Hong Kong courts. The city’s mini-constitution states that “national laws shall not be applied in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region”, except for a few relating to the flag, national anthem and defence.

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, who was handpicked by Beijing, defended the arrangement and said the government would launch a public relations campaign to win the support of a deeply sceptical public.

“There is no question of that sort of concern and worry that we are compromising on the rule of law – on one country, two systems – in order to get the convenience of the high-speed rail,” Lam told reporters.

The government has argued that requiring passengers to pass through immigration twice, one in Hong Kong and once in mainland China, would be too cumbersome.

The arrangement is similar to a land crossing with the neighbouring city of Shenzhen, where Hong Kong immigration officials operate on mainland Chinese soil. That checkpoint has been open for a decade and attracted little controversy.