Reuters gets another exclusive scoop as our normally tight-lipped judiciary open up…
Some in the city’s legal establishment are now bracing for the possibility that China will begin to meddle in the appointment of new judges… Any intervention in the selection process, said one of the justices, would likely spark resignations on the bench. “We’re worried that they are losing patience, and will find ways of tightening the screws,” the judge said, referring to the Beijing leadership. “We know from our interactions with senior mainland judges that they just don’t get Hong Kong at all,” said the justice, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They always want to know why Hong Kong is so confused and chaotic, and not ‘patriotic.’”
This comes as Chinese officials blast pro-dem lawmakers for their filibustering – even asserting that they are committing offences – prompting an inevitable hoo-hah over whether this constitutes ‘interference’.
It definitely constitutes continued Mainlandization of Hong Kong. At best, it’s an attempt to smear and demonize the opposition; more likely, it is a sign that Beijing is planning to use more quasi-legal tactics to disqualify pan-dems in the LegCo elections in September. Either way, it sends a message that – to Beijing – the legislative branch exists to rubber-stamp the CCP-appointed executive.
It is a clear assertion that the opposition, who have a mandate from the people, are the problem – not the appointed government. (The pan-dems might help their case if they made more of this angle.) And, in addition to Mainland interference in Hong Kong’s (in fact LegCo’s) internal affairs, it is a direct challenge to the notion of separation of powers.
The judiciary and the legislature are in the same boat: the Leninist system into which Hong Kong is gradually being absorbed is about total control. When Liaison Office boss Luo Huining drones on about ‘improving’ and ‘strengthening’ legal systems and law-enforcement, this is what he means. Checks and balances and independent institutions are threats to national (ie CCP) security, and their days are numbered.
Not to strum my own er hu but I believe I have been saying this since those days so long ago when the youff stormed the LegCo.
“it is a sign that Beijing is planning to use more quasi-legal tactics to disqualify pan-dems in the LegCo elections in September. Either way, it sends a message that – to Beijing – the legislative branch exists to rubber-stamp the CCP-appointed executive.”
The tactic has always been to just overtake the judiciary and the legislative process of the city, act like it never happened, and one day you wake up and you find everything you live for is illegal.
At least the good burghers of Waga Waga can see the true lie of the land:
“Council must do the right thing and take a stance to demonstrate its rejection of the corrupt Chinese government that has caused such death, destruction and turmoil across the world.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/15/wagga-wagga-severs-ties-with-chinese-sister-city-over-death-and-destruction-from-coronavirus
Good on yer mates!
One shudders at the thought of attending “Law School” on the mainland…particularly at Wuhan University (cough)!
The curriculum must invariably include the following courses:
* “Being Detained by the Motherland: a Primer”
* “The Glorious History of Benevolent Communist Crackdowns”
* “Wisdom Means Avoiding Corporate Abuse Cases”
* “Magnificent Advances in Human Rights Under Supreme Leader Xi”
* “House Arrest and Isolation: An Introduction”
* “The Myth of Tyrannical Persecution and Western Meddling”
* “The Stench of Foreign Representative Attorneys in China”
So, what goes first: RTHK or the Judiciary?
The 27 February 1933 Reichstag fire was used as a pretext to suspend the Weimar Constitution and impose a four-year state of emergency. The Reichstag Fire Decree would “safeguard public security” by restricting civil liberties and granting increased power to the police, and the SA arrested 4,000 members of the Communist Party. Legislative power was given to Hitler so his government could create laws without Rechstag consent.
Several principles were invoked during the state of emergency. The Führerprinzip (“leader principle”) designated Hitler as above the law. The Volkist Principle of Racial Inequality organised the judiciary by race; anyone not considered part of the Volksgemeinschaft (people’s community) was seen as undeserving of legal protection.
@Hong Kong Hibernian
Rather like climate change, the judiciary’s tipping point has already been and gone. Also as per climate change, the effects take a while to kick in, so no one has “indisputable” evidence that everyone can point to as direct causality yet, and we won’t until it’s too late to fix.
The CCP filled the magistracy and lower judiciary with stooges over the last 22 years — lest we forget, all magistrates and judges are part of “the establishment”, and “the establishment” is currently subordinate (and subservient) to the Chinese Communist Party.
So it’ll be RTHK next.
For the past forty years or so, RTHK has been the elephant graveyard for washed up British journalists. If you were British and had spent at least five minutes in journalism you could always get a job of some sort at RTHK by default.
“Oh well Nigel, I see that you have failed in virtually every job you ever had. ATV, The Star, a PR company, ATV again, HK Standard -by the way, do you know Nury?- in-house PR at Miramar Hotel, manager of a pub and a distributor at NuSkin. What can I say? Welcome to RTHK!”
Magistrates and judges aren’t all subservient to the ccp yet though clearly. But it’s a matter of time before judicial stooges do take over the high levels of the judiciary. Will it then be Singapore style common law?
@Donny Almond
If you are referring to RTHK Radio 3, I would totally agree with you – it’s amateurish and lamentable. Their English news webpages – https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/
however, provide a neat summary and comprehensive coverage of local and world news.