Obama administration officials may be upset that China intervened to help NSA leaker Edward Snowden leave Hong Kong but they shouldn’t be surprised. Beijing has intervened before to get its way on matters that were meant to be the purview of Hong Kong’s independent judicial system and to stymie the territory’s democracy movement.
In 1999, Beijing engineered an override of a decision by Hong Kong’s highest court in a case about who had the right to live in Hong Kong, a matter of great importance in the city, which abuts Mainland China and attracts foreign workers. More than the actual result, Beijing was keen to make clear that it, not Hong Kong’s renowned judiciary, had the final word on interpreting the territory’s Basic Law. Beijing has also interfered in the criminal justice system, prosecuting in its non-independent courts, crimes committed in Hong Kong.
