The situation in Taiwan does not look nearly so grim when the stability of the island democracy is compared to the worsening political climate in Hong Kong. On Friday, the Chinese Communist Party announced that final interpretation of Hong Kongs Basic Law was the prerogative of Beijing. When the British handed their colony over to the Communists in 1997, Beijing promised that Hong Kong would be allowed to govern itself under an arrangement known as One Country/Two Systems — meaning it was part of greater China but not subject to the laws of the Communist mainland. The Basic Law, which is Hong Kongs mini-constitution, protected Hong Kongers political and civil rights and defended traditional freedoms. Beijings announcement that the Communist Party is the ultimate arbiter of Hong Kong law is the end of the One Country/Two Systems framework and marks the beginning of the political subjugation of the people there.
和香港日益敗壞的政治風氣比較起來,台灣的情況(特別是針對這個島上的民主穩定度而言)並沒有看起來那麼糟糕。在禮拜五,中國共產黨宣布北京擁有特權來對香港基本法做最後的解釋。當英國在一九九七年對共產黨交出他們的殖民地時,北京承諾香港可以在一國兩制的系統下自治。一國兩制代表香港是大中國的一部份,但是共產黨在大陸的法律並不伋於香港。基本法是香港的迷體憲法,它能保護香港人的政治和公民權力,並可以保證他們因襲的自由。北京對於共產黨是香港法律的最後仲裁者的這番宣告(正式)終結「一國兩制」的架構,並且開啟了對於(香港)人民的政治征服。