Hong Kong Astir Over Plan to Seek Legal Aid From Beijing

As protesters marched with funeral wreaths to mourn what they said was the death of an independent judiciary in Hong Kong, the territory’s government announced Tuesday that it will ask Beijing for help in reversing a controversial court ruling here granting residency rights to mainland-born offspring of Hong Kongers.

Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, citing an official report that Hong Kong’s population could swell by 1.6 million people if the January ruling remains intact, said the government will ask the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress to “interpret” key provisions of the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s mini-constitution.

Government officials said the extraordinary action, coming less than two years after Hong Kong reverted from British to Chinese rule, in no way subtracts from Hong Kong’s judicial and administrative autonomy. Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong is supposed to enjoy 50 years of independence in all matters except national security and foreign relations.

“It is only on such extraordinary issues that we take such unusual steps,” Tung said at a news conference. “Truly, Hong Kong cannot accept such a huge population growth.”

In the report released earlier this month, the government claimed that Hong Kong’s population would increase by 25% if the court ruling was honored. The government estimated that housing and schools for the new immigrants, many of whom are children of Hong Kong men who have second families on the mainland, would cost $91 billion over the next decade.

“All of us would like to see a happy family reunion,” Tung said, “but what we see is a problem of unplanned population growth, which Hong Kong can’t bear.”

Tuesday’s announcement was immediately celebrated by legal scholars in China, many of whom had been critical of the case. Some of Hong Kong’s leading lawyers, however, expressed strong concern that the government appeal to Beijing undermines the rule of law here.

Alan Leong, president of the Hong Kong Bar Assn., charged that by appealing to Beijing, the government was “employing extrajudicial means to try and avoid the consequences of a loss.”

Central to the controversy is a key provision of the Basic Law granting “right of abode” to children born of Hong Kong residents. The Court of Final Appeals, sitting as a five-judge panel, gave a broad interpretation that covered offspring born even before parents became residents of the territory.

In its appeal to Beijing, the government is reiterating its losing argument before the court that only children born after their parents had become permanent residents are eligible. This would reduce the number of potential immigrants from 1.6 million to fewer than 200,000, according to government statistics.