Lawmakers pass bill to allow joint-clearance at revamped border crossing in ‘fastest’ round of legislative scrutiny since electoral revamp

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) passed a bill that will allow for a joint-clearance arrangement at the revamped Huanggang Port border crossing with China. An artist’s impression of the new Huanggang Port. Photo: IDA Design Awards. The Huanggang Port Hong Kong Port Area Bill was passed on Friday, with the legislature hosting additional meetings before its summer break. The Hong Kong government has been seeking to reopen the port, located on the Shenzhen side, and ensure that travellers only need to pass through one set of border controls. The bill declares an area within the Huanggang Port as being under Hong Kong’s jurisdiction, meaning Hong Kong authorities may enter the area to carry out border clearance and related enforcement. According to the bill, the Hong Kong port area will be open from July 31. However, Hong Kong and Shenzhen authorities have yet to decide when the complex will be fully open to the public. The government gazetted the bill on Tuesday. LegCo completed its first reading of the bill, and started the second reading, on Wednesday – the day LegCo was originally scheduled to host its last meetings before the summer break. However, it then held additional meetings on Thursday and Friday to review the bill, passing it on Friday afternoon. Security minister’s letter to LegCo Local media reported that the process represented the fastest round of legislative scrutiny since authorities overhauled the electoral system in 2021 to ensure only “patriots” could become lawmakers. The bill’s passing was even faster than the 12 days of review afforded to the city’s homegrown national security law. Secretary for Security Chris Tang at the Legislative Council in 2024. File photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. The LegCo secretariat said that security minister Chris Tang sent a letter urging lawmakers to speed up legislation to ensure an early launch for the port. Tang thanked the chamber on Friday during the second reading of the bill: “Since the bill was submitted to the Council on July 15, LegCo has immediately convened additional meetings of the House Committee and the Council to conduct intensive and highly efficient scrutiny,” Tang said in Cantonese. Hong Kong and Shenzhen authorities began refurbishments of the Huanggang Port, on the Chinese side of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong border, in 2019. The arrangement is similar to the joint-clearance set-up at the West Kowloon High Speed Railway Station. However, in the case of the train station, a portion of Hong Kong territory was handed over to China for the purposes of joint clearance. Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps Make a one-off donation. Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing. More by Irene Chan