The Hong Kong arms of the Big Four accountants, in their recent advertisement, attacked the pro-democracy Occupy Central movement, saying it could have a “negative and long-lasting impact on the rule of law”.
Lord Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong, also expressed his fears about what was happening to the rule of law. In his view, it was not pro-democracy campaigners who threatened it but Beijing, with its recent “white paper”, which said that Hong Kong’s judges should be “patriotic”.
“Judges under the rule of law are independent and there shouldn’t be any question of them being instructed or pressed to subordinate their views of due process and what is legal to some other political considerations,” Lord Patten said.