The government has asked Hong Kong’s highest court to refer to the Beijing authorities the question of whether some 300,000 foreign domestic workers should have right of abode in the in the former British colony.

Interference

According to a report in Asian Legal Business, the request has outraged lawyers and pro-democracy activists, as they fear that if granted it will be the beginning of greater interference from the communist government on the mainland.
‘There are increasing concerns about the judiciary and its ability to maintain the quality of justice as it has in the past,’ Simon Young, a barrister and law professor at the University of Hong Kong, told the web site.

Offerings

Meanwhile, the site also refers to a report in the official China Securities Journal saying the Beijing authorities have begun background checks on some 800 businesses applying to be allowed to make domestic initial public offerings.
Asian Legal Business says the move is designed to shorten the IPO waiting list in the jurisdiction, coming, as it does, just several days after China lowered barriers to overseas listings.