This surprises and pleases me.
U.S. issues call for electoral reform in Hong Kong
By Nicholas Kralev
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Published January 10, 2004
The United States, ignoring China's warning not to meddle in its internal affairs, yesterday called for "electoral reform and universal suffrage" in Hong Kong that would allow the population of the Beijing-controlled territory to directly elect its chief executive.
Siding with hundreds of thousands of protesters who marched through the streets of Hong Kong last week, Washington said the demonstrations "reflect the desire of the people of Hong Kong to advance the democratization process, as provided for under the Basic Law," a miniconstitution.
"The United States strongly supports democracy through electoral reform and universal suffrage in Hong Kong," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement.
"These will advance economic and social development and are essential to Hong Kong's prosperity and stability within the 'one country, two systems' framework," he said in reference to China's communist government and Hong Kong's capitalist economy.
Asked specifically whether the United States supports direct elections for a chief executive, a senior State Department official said later that a direct vote is the only truly democratic electoral reform.
The current chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, was in effect appointed by Beijing after the 1997 handover from Britain. His second -- and last -- five-year term expires in 2007.
The Basic Law does envision "universal suffrage" as an ultimate goal, but the document sees it as a gradual process and provides no timetable or other specifics about when and how it might be achieved.
Worried that the implementation of that intention might be delayed by the Chinese government, protesters gathered on Jan. 1 for the second time in six months to demand an immediate and concrete time frame for electoral reforms.
On Wednesday, Mr. Tung announced the creation of a task force to examine political reform, but democracy activists immediately rejected the initiative as inadequate.
They were also critical of China's request for consultations in the early phase of the task force's work.
Mr. Tung said the task force would examine possible changes leading up to the chief executive vote, as well as legislative elections in 2008.
However, he failed to address the issue of a firm timetable for constitutional reform, which is necessary to change the way the chief executive is elected.
Mr. Boucher, asked about Beijing's recent accusation that by commenting on developments in Hong Kong the United States is interfering in China's internal affairs, disagreed with such characterization of Washington's comments.
"I regard them as entirely appropriate, otherwise I wouldn't be making them," he told reporters.
Mr. Boucher is a former U.S. consul-general in Hong Kong.
Last month, the current consul-general, James Keith, praised in a speech the half-million demonstrators for democracy who marched on July 1.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman accused Mr. Keith of "irresponsible remarks." She told the Xinhua news agency that "the issue of Hong Kong's political development is China's internal affair and we firmly oppose any foreign interference on this issue."
According to the Basic Law, in addition to the chief executive, who also appoints the members of an Executive Council, Hong Kong has a 60-member Legislative Council.
But only 30 of those members will be elected in a direct vote this year. That number grew gradually after the handover -- for the first four years it was 20 and for the second 24. |
