Works in French on the intricacies of Chinese politics and law are sufficiently few and far between that we herald those that are published. Guobin Zhu has a doctorate in law from the University of Aix-Marseilles and is an Assistant Professor at the City University of Hong Kong and is one of the all too scarce French-language specialists in Chinese law. His work The Status of Hong Kong, published to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the former British colony’s handover to the People’s Re..

Choukroune, Leïla

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 China Perspectives 
52 | march-april 2004
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Guobin Zhu, Le Statut de Hong Kong, Autonomie ou
Intégration [The Status of Hong Kong between
Autonomy and Integration]
Presses universitaires d’Aix-Marseille, 2002, 287 p.
Leïla Choukroune
Édition électronique
URL : http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/818
ISSN : 1996-4617
Éditeur
Centre d'étude français sur la Chine contemporaine
Édition imprimée
Date de publication : 1 mars 2004
ISSN : 2070-3449
 
Référence électronique
Leïla Choukroune, « Guobin Zhu, Le Statut de Hong Kong, Autonomie ou Intégration [The Status of Hong
Kong between Autonomy and Integration] », China Perspectives [En ligne], 52 | march-april 2004, mis en
ligne le 24 avril 2007, consulté le 28 octobre 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/
chinaperspectives/818 
Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 28 octobre 2019.
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Guobin Zhu, Le Statut de Hong Kong,
Autonomie ou Intégration [The Status
of Hong Kong between Autonomy
and Integration]
Presses universitaires d’Aix-Marseille, 2002, 287 p.
Leïla Choukroune
NOTE DE L’ÉDITEUR
Translated from the French original by Peter Brown
1 Works in French on the intricacies of Chinese politics and law are sufficiently few and
far between that we herald those that are published. Guobin Zhu has a doctorate in law
from  the  University  of  Aix-Marseilles  and  is  an  Assistant  Professor  at  the  City
University of Hong Kong and is one of the all too scarce French-language specialists in
Chinese law.  His  work The Status  of  Hong  Kong,  published to  coincide with the fifth
anniversary of the former British colony’s handover to the People’s Republic of China,
sets itself the task of clarifying in a little under 300 pages, half of which are in the form
of annexes, the island’s new relation to the mother country. 
2 Within the Chinese world in the full  flight of change and tempted at its  fringes by
democratisation, Hong Kong was centre stage in 1997. It was about to break with more
than a century of colonisation in order to accept control by a China pumped up with
nationalism through the apparent success of its policy of reform and opening up. What
had  at  first  been  perceived  as  a  mere  transposition  of  legal  norms  and  practices
unconnected to Chinese reality soon became a deep attachment for Hong Kong, which
had to provide for the defence of its heritage in terms of the rule of law and protection
of individual freedoms. Article 2 of the Basic Law of the Special Administrative Region
sets  this  out  thus:  “The  National  People’s  Congress  authorises  the  Special
Guobin Zhu, Le Statut de Hong Kong, Autonomie ou Intégration [The Status of H...
China Perspectives, 52 | march-april 2004
1
Administrative Region of Hong Kong to exert a high degree of autonomy and to enjoy
independent  executive,  legislative  and  judicial  powers,  including  that  of  final
judgment, in accordance with the provisions of the present Law”. Article 4 goes on to
stipulate: “It will be incumbent on the Special Administrative Region of Hong Kong to
safeguard the rights and freedoms of its residents and of other people from this region
in accordance with the law”. In fact, a new constitutional framework had been drawn
up point by point during the endless debates over a period of four years and eight
months in the National People’s Congress until the adoption, on April 4th 1990, of a
mini-Constitution that came into effect on July 1st 19971.
3 Zhu Guobin asks  the question whether the slogan “One country,  two systems” is  a
political idea or pragmatic view. This raises the whole issue of autonomy and its limits.
The work gives a detailed analysis of the problems raised by clashes of law and their
resolution in the context of two legal systems that are theoretically distinct and yet
broadly speaking subject to a harmonisation in both substance and form in the name of
a single sovereignty. 
4 The  Status  of  Hong  Kong makes  for  a  rather  dry  read  at  times  and  lacks  concrete
examples and case studies that would allow the non-specialist reader to get his or her
bearings  amidst  the  complexity  of  this  normative  quasi-merger  that  is  subject  to
political intentions that Peking has never denied having. It would have been useful to
cast light on a number of topical issues such as the Big Spender2 affair, the Sally Aw
case, questions relating to the right of abode of children born in China of Hong Kong
parents, the constitutional authority of the island’s courts and the implementation of
Article  158  of  the  Basic  Law,  according  to  which  the  power  of  interpretation  is
entrusted to the Permanent Committee of the National People’s Congress.
5 It is similarly regrettable that Guobin Zhu did not pay more attention to those matters
concerning the organisation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers and their
interactions. The great democratic aspiration brought about by the debates over the
adoption of Article 23 has shown, with a force few observers anticipated, how attached
the population of Hong Kong is to its fundamental rights, at the same time as exalting
its legitimate hopes for a move towards representative democracy3.
6 A few words need to be said about the wealth of annexes provided. Guobin Zhu should
be praised for  translating a  whole  set  of  little-known and fascinating texts  for  the
comparative scholar keen to grasp the relations between law and politics, common law
and  the  civil  law  tradition,  and  who  is  curious  about  uncovering,  in  a  complex,
normative  and  ostensibly  well-guarded  system,  any  possible  openings  which  could
allow for the introduction of democracy. In this connection, most of the documented
exchanges between the governments of Britain and the People’s Republic of China and
the detailed text of the Basic Law are to be found amongst the annexes. It  is to be
regretted, however, here as in the work overall, that certain passages have not been
sufficiently polished to better take account of linguistic subtleties.
7 Although there may well have been continuity rather than any break in the Hong Kong
judicial system, the latter is evolving between the rule of law and a state of exception.
What,  one  may  ask,  are  the  implications,  for  those  Chinese  drafting  it,  of  the
preservation  of  a  capitalist  system  towards  which  mainland  China  itself  is  today
leaning, if not to administer “the Territory as if it were a business”, as a handful of
entrepreneurs with a thirst for power once reportedly suggested to Deng Xiaoping4?
The extreme vigilance of  a  civil  society underpinned by brilliant legal  and political
Guobin Zhu, Le Statut de Hong Kong, Autonomie ou Intégration [The Status of H...
China Perspectives, 52 | march-april 2004
2
professionals can alone ensure that Hong Kong will remain a “China Special Democratic
Zone”5. 
NOTES
1. Refer, in this connection, to the comments by Ji Pengfei, Chairman of the Committee
responsible for drafting the Basic Law of the Special Administrative Region of Hong
Kong within the People’s Republic of China, presented as an appendix, pp. 249-265.
2. On the Big Spender case, see Kam C. Wong, “Legal and Political Implications of a
‘Cross-Border Crime’”, China Perspectives, No. 22, March-April 1999, pp. 41-53; Richard
Cullen and H. L. Fu, “Some Limitations in the Basic Law Exposed”, China Perspectives, No.
22, March-April 1999, pp. 54-57.
3. For an engaged and critical view of the events that shook Hong Kong in the context
of the proposed Article 23, see for example the website of the “Global Coalition Against
Article 23”, http://www.againstart23.org, and Amnesty International’s submission to
the Hong Kong government during the consultation phase in the autumn of 2002:
“Response to Hong Kong SAR Government on Proposals to Implement Article 23 of the
Basic Law, submitted to Legco, December 12th 2002”, http://www.amnesty.org. 
4. See p. 27.
5. According to the expression used by Human Rights in China, “China Special
Democratic Zone”, China Rights Forum, No. 3, 2003. http://www.iso.hrichina.org. 
Guobin Zhu, Le Statut de Hong Kong, Autonomie ou Intégration [The Status of H...
China Perspectives, 52 | march-april 2004
3


Guobin Zhu, Le Statut de Hong Kong, Autonomie ou Intégration [The Status of Hong Kong between Autonomy and Integration]

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