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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China Stamps Its Authority on Hong Kong |
| 2004-04-06 |
| ELF - from WaPo The Chinese government ruled Tuesday that it alone has the power to initiate political reform in Hong Kong, that little 50 year agreement? We had our fingers crossed! generating an immediate outcry from pro-democracy activists in this former British colony. The decision, announced in Beijing, seemed to set the stage for a prolonged confrontation between the Chinese national government and Hong Kong democracy advocates, who insist this prosperous enclave should have the right to choose its chief executive and legislators in direct elections. "This is not the end of the story," declared Yeung Sum, chairman of the main pro-election political group, the Democratic Party. "It is just the beginning. We have to fight for democracy." watch your back The Civil Human Rights Front, a pro-democracy group that organized a protest of half a million people last July, announced it will sponsor a new protest Sunday, hoping to mobilize a show of public dissatisfaction in the streets. Polling consistently has shown about 60 percent of Hong Kong’s 6.7 million residents favor a direct vote for their government. But the surveys -- the most recent released by Chinese University this weekend -- also have shown many people doubt Beijing will allow it. The ruling, by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, or legislature, formally was a legal interpretation of the Basic Law that defines the "one country, two systems" government set up here when China resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997. But it amounted to a clear assertion by the Communist Party government that, in Hong Kong as in the rest of China, Beijing intends to set the pace of political reform according to its own lights. Uh, could you explain to Taiwan again the "one country, two systems" policy? - Why yes, the two systems are: heads we win, tails you lose |
| Posted by:Spot |
| #2 When you consider that Taiwan has 1/50th of mainland China's population, yet manages to produce 1/10th of their GDP, it's pretty obvious why Chinese kleptocrats want them in the fold. China's politburo must drool in their collective sleep over the prospect of raping Taiwan's economic powerhouse. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2004-04-07 7:19:33 PM |
| #1 Yay, communism, the winning form of government. ONly that it collapses like the Soviet Union and provides, in the meantime, dissatisfied citizens such as the Chinese Hong King Democracy advocates. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4044 2004-04-06 2:06:00 PM |