The legislature of Hong Kong has adopted a law which will allow the government to more easily carry out the restoration of land in the emblematic port of Victoria in the territory, despite the long -standing opposition of environmentalists.
The legislative council without opposition adopted on Wednesday an amendment to an order which was promulgated in 1997 to protect the port as a “special public asset and a natural heritage of the people of Hong Kong”.
The amendment softens the strict restrictions on the rehabilitation of land and a presumption against such projects without approval of the court that they satisfy a “primordial public need”. Environmentalists say that the amendment will allow the city leader to have the last word instead.
During the debate on the amendment, the legislators of the Democratic Alliance Pro-Beijng for the improvement and progress of Hong Kong, in particular Regina IP and Edward Leung, argued that the previous restrictions and thresholds were “too high” and hampered the development of the port.
Tik Chi-Yuen of the Centrist Party Third Side, who refrained from voting, wondered if the amendment undermines the initial intention of checks and sales by stripping the judiciary of his surveillance role.
The 1997 ordinance – adopted during the year that Hong Kong went from the control of Great Britain in China – was used to stop the main restoration efforts. More particularly, in 2004, the city court ruled against a recovery plan for the land in the district of Wan Chai.
Winston CHU of the defense group of non -government defenders, Society for Protection of the Harbor, which was created in the 1990s, said that the amendment would allow the government to “serve as a judge for its own proposals”, then became the owner of the recovered land.
Victoria Harbor is a natural characteristic that separates the island of Hong Kong from the Kowloon peninsula. It covers an area of approximately 16 square miles (40 square kilometers) and serves as a major duct for trade and as a tourist attraction. The increases near the harbourside are a distinctive characteristic of the city's horizon.
Over the past five years, Beijing has strengthened control of Hong Kong, stifling a protest movement and reducing semi-autonomous status whose city played after the end of colonial domination by Great Britain in 1997. The opposition legislators left the legislature or were ousted.
Edited by Mat Pennington.