'Twisting Of Basic Law Is The Gravest Assault On HK'

Pan-democratic lawmakers warned on Monday that the SAR is facing a constitutional crisis, as a row escalates over what limits there are to the powers of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong.

At a press briefing, the pro-democracy camp said the office's contention that it is not subject to restrictions laid out under Article 22 of the Basic Law is the “gravest assault” on the "One Country, Two Systems" principle.

Democratic Party lawmaker Helena Wong accused mainland authorities of "twisting" the Basic Law.

“The Hong Kong SAR government is directly under the central government. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) and the liaison office are also under the central government. We are neither under the HKMAO nor the liaison office," she said.

"It’s stated clearly in the constitution, unless President Xi Jinping tells us whatever was said in the past isn’t valid anymore and that he can interpret the Basic Law in whatever ways he wants,” she said.

Council Front’s Claudia Mo, meanwhile, accused the Hong Kong government of failing to uphold the "One Country, Two Systems" principle.

“The repeatedly revised government statements [on Saturday night] are not just inflammatory, they are downright dishonest. It shows you the Carrie Lam government will just bend over backwards to accommodate Beijing’s wishes and they wouldn’t even bother to keep up appearances,” she said.

“This is probably the gravest assault on One Country, Two Systems because now they’re laying down the ground rule… their ground rule that they can just do anything, say anything about Hong Kong. I’m the law, according to China,” she said.

The Labour Party's Fernando Cheung said the affair marks a turning point. He said that while the liaison office had meddled in Hong Kong matters in the past, it always used to do so in a clandestine way. Now everything is out in the open, he said.