Responding to a reporter’s question Friday, Shen Chunyao said the decision had been made during a plenary meeting of the Communist Party’s top decision-making body, which met in Beijing this week.
The system by which the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s rubber-stamp parliament, “interprets” the de facto constitutions of the two cities will also be improved, Shen said, in order that the central government “can exercise its rights enshrined in the constitution.”
There was no elaboration as to what the changes could mean for incumbent Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, or when any changes would be introduced. Lam’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She is not due to finish her current term until 2022.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying dismissed those reports as a “political rumor (being spread with) ulterior motives.”
Shen said that Beijing would improve the legal system and strengthen “law enforcement” in the two special administrative regions, as well as “strengthening” education in the cities.
Some officials in Hong Kong and pro-Beijing lawmakers have blamed the city’s school system for cultivating a generation of anti-government protesters. The unrest is about to enter its 22nd straight weekend after initial mass demonstrations were launched this summer against a now-shelved extradition bill with China, that was promoted by Lam.
Source : Nbcnewyork