Beijing’s Assault on Hong Kong Now Extends to Language
George Orwell would understand
Step by step, guided by the not-so-unseen hand of Beijing, assumptions about Hong Kong are being changed, words deleted and meanings re-interpreted. This week it became known that the Secretary for Education had ordered the deletion of the phrase “separation of powers” from its websites and educational materials in relationship to Hong Kong’s Basic Law and system of government.
Although this phrase is not used in the Basic Law, it has long been a widely-held assumption, with the power of the executive ass represented by the Chief Executive constrained both by a need to operate within laws passed by the Legislative Council and subject to a judiciary independent of the executive. That separation was believed to provide a safeguard against arbitrary government and the suppression of freedoms of speech and assembly (as promised in the Basic Law).
Instead of “separation of powers”, the focus has been shifted to “executive-led government” in which the other branches are secondary to, if not subservient to, the executive.