Hong Kong is headed towards a fresh constitutional collision course with Beijing, this time over the degree to which mainland Chinese officials are entitled to intervene in its affairs. Beijing is trying to legitimise more direct action, as everyone focuses on Covid-19. Thread:
1/ Beijing has three main bodies responsible for Hong Kong affairs. 1. Communist Party’s HK & Macau coordination group, chaired by Politburo standing committee member Han Zheng 2. HK & Macau Affairs office, under State Council and 3. The central govt’s Liaison Office, based in HK
2/ The latest controversy concerns 2 and 3, when the duo issued sharp criticism against pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok, who represents the legal section, publicly accusing him of blocking certainly legislative procedures.
3/ Critics say the two bodies contravened Article 22 of HK’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. 
4/ While the liaison office traditionally ignored such criticism, this time round, headed by a new, powerful leader installed after last year’s protests (remember that?) the office decided to fight back and say, essentially: Sorry guys, we are actually not bound by Art 22.
5/ Apparently clueless about the constitutional arguments at stake, and potentially under pressure from Beijing, the HK government, as the @SCMPNews put it quite rightly, flip-flopped, issuing 3 statements in the course of 4.5 hours. scmp.com/news/hong-kong…
6/ The initial statement says the liaison office is indeed bound by Art 22. Second statement says liaison office is bound by the Basic Law, without referencing any particular articles.
7/ A third statement came out past 1am HKT (an apparent sign of Beijing’s presumed insistence on clarification). In the latest U turn, the office isn’t bound by Art 22, as it‘s set up by the central govt, not, as the article stipulates, by “departments of the central govt”.
8/ In another development, Beijing officials have also recently called on HK to enact national security legislation, knowing full well what a sensitive issue it must be, one that indirectly fastened the collapse of HK's first post-handover chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa.
9/ Beijing is clearly more ready to be on the offensive regarding HK, because (1) protests last year exposed its deep fear & sense of insecurity, (2) Beijing hawks on upper hand, from diplomacy to domestic politics, (3) Covid-19 provides good timing, (4) Carrie Lam is powerless.
Typos: legal sector; blocking certain legislative procedures. Background here: scmp.com/news/hong-kong…
