Hong Kong’s common law tradition can bolster city’s ‘connector’ role: Beijing official

Cui Jianchun, Beijing’s top diplomat in Hong Kong, also says critical comments about curtailed freedoms in city are ‘rumours made by insane people’

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Beijing official Cui Jianchun has also insisted that continued business in Hong Kong reflected both the city’s strong rule of law and companies’ faith in it. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 6:53pm, 4 Nov 2024Updated: 9:20pm, 4 Nov 2024

Hong Kong should use its unique status as the only Chinese city that practises common law to bolster its “springboard” role in connecting the country with the rest of the world, a senior Beijing official has said.

Cui Jianchun, the head of the foreign ministry’s office in Hong Kong, on Monday also dismissed as “rumours made by insane people” critical comments that the city had lost its freedoms after the implementation of two national security laws, one promulgated by Beijing in June 2020 and the other, Article 23, enacted domestically in March this year.

Cui was speaking at the Asia-Pacific International Private Law Summit 2024, which is part of “Legal Week”, a five-day event by the Department of Justice held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.

The theme of this year’s event, which began on Monday, is “Hong Kong Common Law System: World-class Springboard to China and Beyond”.

Cui stressed that the central government’s commitment to the “one country, two systems” governing principle provided the “strongest foundation” for the city’s development.

“Hong Kong can continue to enhance its unique role of a ‘superconnector’ to facilitate trade and investment between Chinese and foreign enterprises,” he said.