Albert Chen on The Historical past of the Drafting and Implementation of the Fundamental Regulation of the Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area (new guide chapter)

Summary: The Hong Kong Particular Administrative Area (HKSAR) of the Individuals’s Republic of China (PRC) was established in 1997 upon the termination of British colonial rule in Hong Kong. The Fundamental Regulation of the HKSAR is the constitutional instrument of post-colonial Hong Kong. This chapter discusses the historical past of the drafting and implementation of the Fundamental Regulation. The Chinese language authorities by no means recognised publicly that the British or the colonial Hong Kong authorities had any function to play within the drafting of the Fundamental Regulation. The Chinese language authorities thought of the making of the Fundamental Regulation a purely home affair of the PRC. The political elite and public opinion in Hong Kong had divided views on sure elementary points arising from the drafting of the Fundamental Regulation, notably as regards the diploma of Hong Kong’s democratisation that ought to be codified within the Fundamental Regulation.