Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

The Practice of the 'One Country, Two Systems' Policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

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Language
  
Chinese

Published
  
10 June 2014

ISBN
  
978-7-01-013362-1

Country
  
China

Author
  
Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China

The Practice of the 'One Country, Two Systems' Policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Chinese: 「一國兩制」在香港特別行政區的實踐) is a white paper issued by the Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China (PRC) on the practice of the "one country, two systems" policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on 10 June 2014 in the midst of the 2014 Hong Kong electoral reform and the Occupy Central movement by the pan-democracy camp.

The white paper reasserts its "comprehensive jurisdiction" over the territory. "The high degree of autonomy of the HKSAR [Hong Kong Special Administrative Region] is not full autonomy, nor a decentralised power," it says. "It is the power to run local affairs as authorised by the central leadership." It also stresses that "loving the country is the basic principle for Hong Kong's administrators," who also have a responsibility to safeguard "the country's sovereignty, security and development interests and [to ensure] the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong." It also asserts the necessity "to stay alert to the attempt of outside forces to use Hong Kong to interfere China's domestic affairs, and prevent and repel the attempt made by a very small number of people who act in collusion with outside forces to interfere with the implementation of 'one country, two systems' in Hong Kong."

The white paper ignited a firestorm of criticism from various sectors in Hong Kong who worried that the Communist leadership was reneging on its pledges to abide by the “one country, two systems” policy that allows for a democratic, autonomous Hong Kong under Beijing’s rule.

References

The Practice of the 'One Country, Two Systems' Policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Wikipedia