British Response to Election Limits Upsets Activists in Hong Kong
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Version 0 of 1. HONG KONG — For months, democracy advocates in Hong Kong have called for an open election for the city’s leader and for international pressure to be exerted on Beijing to not interfere with Hong Kong’s autonomy. That effort suffered another blow on Thursday when the British government said that it welcomed an act of China’s legislature that set strict limits on how Hong Kong is allowed to select its next leader, even while it acknowledged that the “detailed terms” of Beijing’s decision would “disappoint those who are arguing for a more open nomination process.” “While we recognise that there is no perfect model, the important thing is that the people of Hong Kong have a genuine choice and a real stake in the outcome,” the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement. The statement, a response to the legislature’s action on Sunday, was a disappointment to many of Hong Kong’s democrats, some of whom have eagerly invited foreign countries to speak up on what they perceive as Beijing’s increasing interference in Hong Kong’s affairs. The United States government’s national security adviser, Susan E. Rice, is expected to raise concerns about Hong Kong to Chinese leaders during her visit to Beijing this weekend. Hong Kong 2020, a political group led by Anson Chan, Hong Kong’s former No. 2 official and a critic of Beijing, said it would have been better had the British government said nothing “than to make the shameful assertion that what has been mandated by Beijing amounts, in any sense, to universal suffrage.” The foreign office’s response came amid an inquiry by a British parliamentary committee to assess the implementation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the treaty in which the two countries agreed that Hong Kong, upon its return to Chinese rule, would enjoy “a high degree of autonomy” as well as a wide range of liberties. At a hearing by Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in July, Mrs. Chan urged the British government to live up to its responsibilities in ensuring that China upheld the terms of the treaty. The inquiry has carried on despite protests by the Chinese government, which has said Hong Kong is an internal affair. The inquiry does not “serve the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong, or the healthy development of China-U.K. relations. It will ultimately harm the interests of Britain,” wrote Liu Xiaoming, China’s ambassador to Britain, to Richard Ottaway, the chairman of the committee leading the inquiry. Mr. Ottaway responded that it was “an entirely legitimate interest” of the committee to assess the implementation of the treaty. A wide band of politicians, students and activists, who were upset by Beijing’s plan to impose strict limits on who can be nominated as Hong Kong’s top leader, said they would stage a series of protests, including a student strike scheduled to start Sept. 22. |