Hong Kong’s justice minister has become the latest top official to weigh in on an extensive discussion on separation of powers, saying the city’s political system clearly puts the executive arm of government above the judiciary and legislative branches.

Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng also urged people not to focus on the name of a concept, but to understand the actual political system to avoid unnecessary arguments.

She did not directly address the question of whether Hong Kong, a highly autonomous special administrative region of China, practiced separation of powers or not.

The city’s latest political row is barely a week old, arising from education secretary Kevin Yeung’s remark on Monday that Hong Kong had no separation of powers as he was trying to defend the removal of school textbook content about the concept. Chief Executive Carrie Lam then picked up his words, saying the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, did not mention separation of powers.

Writing on her official blog on Saturday, Cheng said international academic research gave different interpretations of the concept. Instead of focusing on the name of a concept, people should seek to understand the constitutional order through the Basic Law, she said.

The justice minister stressed the necessity of appreciating the fact that China was a country with a single political system.

She cited several articles from the Basic Law to explain that while the executive and legislative branches functioned interrelatedly, the executive dominated in the initiation of legislative bills.

Cheng also singled out Article 85 as support for the independence of the city’s judiciary, stressing that the political system “will absolutely not” affect judicial independence. The executive branch, while enjoying a larger say in decision making, must also abide by the law and could be challenged by judicial review, she noted.

As well, the Basic Law guaranteed that judicial power could be exercised without interference, she added.

In response to Cheng’s blog post, pan-democratic lawmaker Alvin Yeung, who was also a barrister, said Hong Kong people had long understood separation of powers as a means of having checks and balances between the executive, legislative and judicial arms, and thereby monitoring and limiting the power of the chief executive.

Yeung pointed out the Basic Law did not mention Hong Kong’s system being executive-led, and questioned whether government officials had any legal basis to say that the judicial arm answered to the chief executive.

He said the recent row over separation of powers stemmed from the Hong Kong government changing its interpretation of the concept and causing worries about whether residents still had the right to bring judicial reviews against the government.

“The government has moved the goalposts and is now blaming those who point out the fact that it has moved the goalposts,” Yeung said.

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