News: China to tighten Hong Kong reins

China to tighten Hong Kong reins
By Willy Lam for CNN
Monday, September 13, 2004 Posted: 5:46 AM EDT (0946 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/09/12/hk.vote.china/index.html

China to tighten Hong Kong reins

By Willy Lam for CNN

HONG KONG, China (CNN) — Beijing is expected to come up with tougher ways to ensure control over Hong Kong despite the fact that democratic politicians got nowhere near half the seats in the 60-member Legislative Council (LegCo) in Sunday’s hotly contested polls.

Pro-democratic candidates won 25 seats in all, three seats more than four years ago.

But even if they can secure the support of independent lawmakers on individual issues, legislators from the Hong Kong Democratic Party (HKDP) and other “anti-Chinese” groups would not be in a position to pose a big threat to Beijing’s hand-picked Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.

Immediately after the massive pro-universal suffrage rally on July 1 this year, there were expectations the pro-democratic alliance would garner 28 or 29 LegCo positions.

However, two new legislators repeatedly savaged by pro-Chinese politicians and media in Hong Kong — veteran anti-Beijing demonstrator Leung (“Long Hair”) Kwok-hung and avant-garde broadcaster Albert Cheng — won by comfortable margins.

The voter turnout rate of 55.6 percent — 12 percent higher than that in the last polls four years ago — was also interpreted as a sign Hong Kong’s nearly 7 million people wanted to send a message of protest to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership.

Ivan Choi, a politics lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the election showed the Hong Kong populace had “matured in their political outlook and was demanding more participation in public affairs.”

“Beijing should hopefully try to channel this [voter sentiment] into a positive force because suppressing it could have very bad consequences.”

The Chinese Communist Party’s top policy-making organ in Hong Kong — the Coordinating Leading Group on Hong Kong Affairs (CLGHKA) — is tipped to meet Monday to discuss latest strategies.

A Chinese source close to the Hong Kong policy establishment in Beijing said should new LegCo members prove “unruly,” the leadership could introduce ways to marginalize the loosely-constituted parliamentary body.

The source said the “worst-case scenario” would be a Beijing-initiated amendment of the Basic Law — Hong Kong’s constitution — to ensure that the Chief Executive would have more clear-cut powers to override LegCo.

Before the polls, Professor Zhang Tongxin, a Hong Kong expert at the People’s University in Beijing, indicated that since Hong Kong did not practice the “Western” concept of the tripartite division of power between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, it did not really matter what number of LegCo seats the democrats could win.

“Hong Kong follows the system of an executive-led administration,” Zhang told the Hong Kong media. “The power and functions of the legislature are limited.”

As of Monday morning, Beijing has not given an official reaction to the results of the polls.

At least for the time being, however, the CCP leadership is expected to continue the “smile and make nice” campaign it started in the northern summer to try to mend fences with a populace that was angry with China’s decision last April to abolish general elections for the Chief Executive’s position for 2007, and for the LegCo in 2008.

The CLGHKA, headed by Vice-President Zeng Qinghong, will also continue the policy of dispensing special economic privileges to the SAR.

Late last month, Beijing agreed to grant duty-free entry to an additional several hundred categories of Hong Kong-manufactured products.

Before the historic polls, the HKDP and other liberal politicians expressed the hope that Beijing would put on a show of tolerance and magnanimity by inviting all 60 new legislators for a ceremonial get-together in Beijing or at least in neighboring Guangdong Province.

Now, the chances of this happening are nil given Long Hair’s unexpected electoral triumph.

Veteran HKDP politician Fred Li partly attributed his party’s disappointing showing to a series of scandals hitting pro-democratic candidates that were apparently masterminded by pro-Chinese forces.

Alex Ho, who was running on the same ticket as Li, was last month detained by police in the neighboring Chinese city of Dongguan for allegedly patronizing a prostitute.

“We have lost many votes because of the Ho affair,” said Li, who was himself re-elected.

Another re-elected pro-democratic legislator said there was fear in the community that given the success of the “dirty-tricks” campaign tactics, Beijing and their Hong Kong representatives might be tempted to use similar gimmicks in the future.

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