Party paper hails HK Basic Law

The flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China will run an editorial on Saturday hailing the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) on the eve of the 25th anniversary of its adoption.

The People's Daily article, to be published on the 25th anniversary of the law's adoption, will say that the law is of great significance to maintaining Hong Kong's long-lasting prosperity and stability.

The Basic Law adopted on April 4, 1990, embodies the vision of "one country, two systems", a pragmatic solution allowing socialist China to incorporate the political and economic complexities of Hong Kong.

"It served as a basic guide to the birth of the HKSAR, ensuring the smooth handover of Hong Kong to China. It has provided fundamental guarantees for a prosperous, stable Hong Kong," according to the editorial.

Twenty five years on, the Basic Law has proven to be amenable to practice and should be firmly adhered to, the article will insist.

Effective enforcement of the law demands comprehensive understanding of the "one country, two systems" policy, always giving top priority to safeguarding state sovereignty and security as well as the country's interests, and maintaining Hong Kong's long-lasting prosperity and stability, according to the commentary.

"Efforts should be made to better deal with relationships between adhering to the one country principle and respecting two systems' difference, between ensuring the central authority's power to govern Hong Kong and protecting the special region's high degree of autonomy.

"China's constitution, along with the Basic Law, constitutes the constitutional basis of Hong Kong, and the latter should never be isolated from the former at any time," the paper will warn.

The Basic Law took a 59-member committee, of whom 23 were from Hong Kong, almost five years to draft. Another committee of 180 Hong Kong locals gathered about 80,000 opinions on the bill during several rounds of review.

The Basic Law's one major task is to realize universal suffrage in the election of the region's chief executive, according to the People's Daily.

"As long as Hong Kong residents obey the Constitution and the Basic Law, as well as the election principles decreed by the country's top legislature, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, historic democratic development will be realized in Hong Kong," the article will say. Endi