(Photo by AP)
[Asia Economy Reporter Ki-min Lee] Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, made her first statement on the 1st, saying "There is no separation of powers in Hong Kong," amid controversy over the removal of the separation of powers section from Hong Kong high school textbooks.
Hong Kong media Ming Pao reported that before attending the cabinet meeting that morning, Chief Executive Lam told reporters that the Basic Law (Hong Kong's de facto constitution) clearly states that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region is a directly governed region of the Central Government of China, and that the autonomy Hong Kong enjoys is not complete autonomy.
Lam also said that in the past, the public did not properly understand or misunderstood the separation of powers, but the current government intends to correct this.
Earlier, after the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law in July, Hong Kong authorities deleted and revised content related to the separation of powers from high school textbooks. The separation of powers is a democratic principle that prevents abuse of state power by ensuring that legislative, judicial, and executive powers are exercised independently by each institution based on the principle of checks and balances.
According to Ming Pao, following guidelines from the education authorities, content related to the separation of powers in Hong Kong's political system was deleted or revised in eight high school textbooks from six publishers. Some textbooks also removed content related to protests such as the June 4 Tiananmen democracy movement.
The day before Lam's remarks, Education Secretary Carrie Yung stated regarding the textbook revisions that there is no separation of powers in Hong Kong.
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