Constitution: Basic Law approved in March 1990 by China's
National People's Congress is Hong Kong's "mini-constitution"
Legal system: based on English common law
Suffrage: direct election 18 years of age; universal for permanent residents living in the territory of Hong Kong for the past seven years; indirect election limited to about 100,000 members of functional constituencies and an 800-member Election Commission drawn from broad regional groupings and other central government bodies
Executive branch:
chief of state: President of China JIANG Zemin (since 27 March 1993)
head of government: Chief Executive TUNG Chee-hwa (since 1 July 1997)
cabinet: Executive Council consists of three ex-officio members and
10 appointed members; ex-officio members are: Chief Secretary Anson
CHAN (since 29 November 1993), Financial Secretary Donald TSANG
(since 7 March 1995), and Secretary of Justice Elsie LEUNG (since 1
July 1997)
elections: NA
Legislative branch: unicameral Legislative Council or LEGCO (60
seats; 30 indirectly elected by functional constituencies, 20
elected by popular vote, and 10 elected by an 800-member election
committee; members serve four-year terms)
elections: last held 25 May 1998 (next to be held NA 2002)
election results: percent of vote by party—NA; seats by
party—Democratic Party 13, Liberal Party 9, Democratic Alliance for
the Betterment of Hong Kong 9, Hong Kong Progressive Alliance 5,
Frontier Party 3, Citizens Party 1, independents 20
Judicial branch: The Court of Final Appeal in the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region
Political parties and leaders: Democratic Party [Martin LEE,
Political pressure groups and leaders: Association for Democracy Kowloon Trade Union Council (pro-Taiwan); Confederation of Trade Chamber of Commerce; Chinese General Chamber of Commerce (pro-China); Federation of Hong Kong Industries; Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong; Hong Kong Professional chairman]
International organization participation: APEC, AsDB, BIS, CCC,
ESCAP (associate), ICFTU, IMO (associate), Interpol (subbureau),
IOC, ISO (correspondent), WCL, WMO, WTrO
Diplomatic representation in the US: none (special administrative
region of China)