No Separation Of Powers Remark Raises Eyebrows

Education-sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen says it is dangerous for the government to intervene in what is being taught in schools, after the Education Minister Kevin Yeung on Monday said it was factually incorrect for school books to suggest Hong Kong had a separation of powers between the executive, the legislative and the judicial branches.

Ip says the Education Bureau needs to support its claims.

"When the secretary came up with this kind of saying that, you know, there is no such separation of powers in the past and at present, it's quite contradictory to what people believe," Ip said. "So they actually have to give much more information or give arguments to support their claims."

"More importantly, I think this is wrong that the government thinks that they know the truth so they make use of that truth to ask people to teach according to their lines."

In recent years, Beijing has asserted that Hong Kong has an "executive-led system" and that the city's Chief Executive "transcends" the three branches.

However, this position has been contradicted in the past by Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma.

"The Basic Law sets out clearly the principle of the separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, and in quite specific terms, the different roles of the three institutions," Ma said in a speech at the ceremonial opening of the legal year in 2014.