Hong Kong independence ‘impossible’, says Beijing legal official
Former Basic Law Committee chairman Qiao Xiaoyang rules out any such move in reaction to article in University of Hong Kong student magazine Undergrad, which argued for independence after 2047
A senior legal official from Beijing has completely dismissed escalating calls from some Hongkongers to turn the Chinese territory into an independent sovereign state in 2047.
“It’s impossible,” Qiao Xiaoyang, head of the National People’s Congress Law Committee, said of the suggestion. “How would it be possible?”
Qiao, a former Basic Law Committee chairman, was speaking on the sidelines of the “two sessions” in the capital.
The comments came after an article in the latest issue of the University of Hong Kong student magazine Undergrad proposed that Hong Kong become a sovereign state recognised by the UN in 2047.
The article argued for the city’s independence on the expiry of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which stipulates that Hong Kong should remain unchanged for 50 years after the 1997 handover.
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“Even though Hong Kong doesn’t have the conditions to become independent yet ... whether independence is viable or not is not our main concern,” it read.
