Back in early 1980s, there was a huge confidence crisis when it was announced that Hong Kong was going to be handed over to China. It was feared that the Chines

Back in early 1980s, there was a huge confidence crisis when it was announced that Hong Kong was going to be handed over to China. It was feared that the Chinese Communists was going to practice socialism in the city. Apparently, back then, the Chinese Communists thought that Hong Kong was more useful as a place to experiment with capitalism and market economy (which they did adopt to some extent in the mainland, compare today's China with China in the 1970s, a lot of Hong Kong businessmen were consulted on how to build a market economy in China) Anyway it was under this historical context that China proposed to invite foreign judges to sit in Hong Kong courts to boost the confidence of skeptics in the future of the region. Fast forward to now, this is still a tool for the Hong Kong government, to silence critics that the judiciary is being pressured by Beijing in trying political cases. At least, if judges your country are involved in deciding appeal cases there, your government can't really say with a straight face that they're systematically persecuting political dissidents. The UK has been trying to pull out their judges but from news reports I've read they're (the UK govt and judges) having a hard time agreeing to a coherent plan... PS: the actual role they have is similar to a judge in a supreme court. They get a "vote" (out of usual 5) how on how to decide the case if invited to sit for a particular case.