20 Hong Kong delegates to skip flying in favour of train to Beijing for annual political meetings
Group will make 2,000km journey by high-speed rail as government seeks to promote new line to Hong Kong
Twenty Hong Kong delegates to China’s national legislature and top political advisory body will ditch flying in favour of the country’s fast expanding high-speed rail network when they journey north to Beijing for their annual meeting on Thursday.
The group will need to cross the border into mainland China and board trains in neighbouring Shenzhen to begin the almost 2,000km trip. But from September the journey could start at Hong Kong’s West Kowloon after a cross-border rail line opens connecting the city to the national network.
Their decision to opt for the train is being seen as a publicity stunt to promote the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong express rail link, which has been plagued by cost overruns and delays.
The line has also faced opposition from Hong Kong’s pan-democrat lawmakers who have insisted a joint immigration and customs checkpoint to be operated together by mainland and local officers at West Kowloon does not fit with the city’s mini-constitution. That is because it will involve enforcing mainland laws on Hong Kong soil for the first time.
The 20 members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Congress announced on Tuesday their travel plans for the parliamentary meetings commonly known as the “Two Sessions”. The opening meetings of the CPPCC and NPC will kick off on Saturday and Monday respectively.
