On the Political, Legal, and Constitutional Legitimacy of the System Construction of Special Administrative Regions

The theoretical explanations provided by the academic community around the construction of the special administrative region are currently showing a diversified trend, including ‘One Country, Two Systems’, achieving peaceful reunification of the motherland, the Basic Law, Article 31 of the Constitution, the comprehensive governance power of the central government, and the high degree of autonomy of the special administrative region, all of which provide legitimacy for the construction of the special administrative region system from different perspectives. However, among the aforementioned theoretical foundations, there is currently a lack of theoretical and logical sorting, and effective theoretical connections have not been established amongst various theoretical foundations. There is also a lack of classification and hierarchical research on various theoretical foundations from the perspective of theoretical systems. In fact, President Xi Jinping’s important speech at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland and the inauguration ceremony of the 6th Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government comprehensively and systematically elaborated on the theoretical basis of the construction of the special administrative region system from the perspectives of political, legal and constitutional legitimacy, providing ideological methods and action directions for a scientific understanding of the nature of the special administrative region system and exploring a reliable institutional framework for the construction of the special administrative region system. To implement the spirit of the President Xi Jinping’s important speech conscientiously, it is necessary to establish a scientific and reasonable theoretical connection between the political, legal, and constitutional aspects of the construction of the special administrative region system, and strengthen the political, legal, and constitutional responsibilities of the central and special administrative regions in the construction of the special administrative region system.