Mr Justice Kemal Bokhary, a former permanent judge of the country’s Court of Final Appeal, set out his view in response to a suggestion that only Chinese nationals should take up the top positions.
The judge – who was born in Hong Kong but is of Pakistani heritage, and was called to the English bar -- told the South China Morning Post: ‘If you make a change, you really want to know why you are making a change, and people will worry about it. But I do emphasise commitment to Hong Kong and understanding of Hong Kong is not a matter of nationality.’

Residency ruling

The debate was lit by Cheng Jie -- associate professor of law at Tsinghua University -- who said all Court of Final Appeal judges should be Chinese nationals.
Mr Bokhary also commented on a 2001 Court of Final Appeal ruling – which conferred automatic residency on babies born to mainland parents in Hong Kong. When asked if the decision would have been different if reached 50 years after the handover, he said: ‘It seems to me that the law is clear enough, and I don’t see how you can make it less clear by the passage of time. Unless I think ill of the judges, I would expect a similar decision.’