Legal experts and scholars have voiced grave concerns about Hong Kong’s judicial independence after Chief Executive Carrie Lam said the city’s constitutional order was not subject to the separation of powers.

Lam said on Tuesday that there is a “division of labor” among three branches of government, but Hong Kong’s administration is “executive-led” and its authority is derived from the central government.

HKU law professor Johannes Chan criticized Lam as “playing word games” and misinterpreting the Basic Law, and the chief executive should not interfere with the legislative and judicial branches of government.

“Does an ‘executive-led government’ mean that it is above the law? Can it tell judges how to rule on cases? Nobody doubts that the executive branch should take charge of administrative work, but that doesn’t mean it can infringe on legislative and judicial tasks,” Chan told Apple Daily.

Lam was trying to muddy the waters by appealing to the ultimate authority of Beijing, he said. “The separation of powers is about a system of governance, it has nothing to do with the hierarchy between Hong Kong and the central government,” Chan said.

“Nobody in Hong Kong has absolute authority. If this principle is compromised because of political reasons, what will Hong Kong become?” he said, describing Lam’s comments as “regrettable.”

Ivan Choy, politics lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that Lam’s administration had been conducting political vetting of textbooks due to Beijing’s imposition of the national security law.

Choy said that the national security law might undermine the separation of powers, as the chief executive has the authority to appoint judges and set up special courts for national security cases.

However, Lam’s comments were unlikely to reverse the popular view in support of the separation of powers, he added.

Lam’s comments were “hypocritical and opportunistic,” said veteran commentator Johnny Lau. Lam often defends Hong Kong’s judicial independence when challenged by foreign critics, but also rejects the separation of powers as a show of loyalty to Beijing, Lau said.

Hong Kong’s judiciary will likely come under Beijing’s influence in the future, and Lam’s administration will “dilute” the concept of separation of powers in the public discourse, Lau said.

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