Fighting erupted in Hong Kong's legislature over proposed changes to the law allowing suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial. Critics believe the proposed switch to the extradition law would erode Hong Kong's freedoms under the "One Country, Two Systems" policy.
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The principle of “one country, two systems” was first proposed by Deng Xiaoping in the early 1980s as way to reconcile the communist mainland with historically Chinese territories—Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau—that had capitalist economies.
He suggested that there would be only one China, but distinct Chinese regions such as Hong Kong and Macau could retain their own economic and administrative systems, while the rest of the PRC (or simply "China") uses the socialism with Chinese characteristics system.
In 1984 the concept was enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, in which the two countries agreed that Britain would hand over sovereignty of Hong Kong to China (China regained control over the former British colony in 1997).
It is also in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. The Hong kong’s Basic Law states that even though Hong Kong is an “inalienable” part of the People’s Republic, China’s parliament authorises it to exercise a “high degree of autonomy” to enjoy executive, legislative and independent judicial power.
China is responsible for defence and foreign affairs but Hong Kong runs its own internal security.
The central government is banned from interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs, and the Communist Party has no official presence. Freedom of speech, press, religion and protest are all defended by law.
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