China warns HK: Don't stray too far
It threatens to dissolve the territory's legislature if democrats take control of body from pro-Beijing faction in polls
By Ching Cheong
HONG KONG - China has taken the velvet glove off its iron fist and threatened to dissolve Hong Kong's legislature if pro-Beijing candidates lose control of the body in the coming September election.
This is the sternest warning issued by Beijing in its bid to stem the rising democratic tide set off by the massive public protest last July 1.
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It was delivered on Sunday by a senior Chinese official at a closed-door briefing for a selected group of pro-Beijing journalists in the Special Administrative Region.
According to a transcript published the following day by Wen Wei Po, Beijing's mouthpiece in Hong Kong, the official said: 'I have a sword. Normally, I would not use it. Now it is the democrats who force me to use it.'
Asked what the 'sword' was, he replied: 'Please note that the Basic Law (Hong Kong's mini-Constitution) has provided for the dissolution of the legislature.'
Such a move would trigger a major constitutional crisis.
That Beijing is prepared to go so far shows just how worried it is about losing the September election for a new Legislative Council (Legco).
Half of the 60 seats in the council will be up for direct election, with the other half to come from an indirect one through the so-called functional constituencies.
If the district council election in November is any guide, the democrats could well capture control of Legco, after which they can, in theory, pass laws to speed up democratisation.
Hence the threat. Accusing the democrats of being 'totally ignorant' of Chinese political dynamics, the official reportedly said: 'The more you push, the greater resistance will be put up by the central government.'
He reminded the journalists of the precedent set in the early 1990s when then Governor Chris Patten installed a Legco Beijing did not accept.
'We warned the British of our resolve to 'set up a new stove and scrap the old one' if our warnings were not heeded,' he recalled. 'We promptly did so as soon as British rule ended in June 1997.
'Ten years ago, our national power was still far behind what it is today, and yet we still had the courage to do so.
'Given our greater economic might now and Hong Kong's heavy dependency on China, to set up a new stove is not a problem. We are not afraid that such a move would trigger off a capital flight.'
Asked if dialogue was still possible between the democratic groups and Beijing, he snapped: 'No, none of the democrats are trustworthy.'
Observers see that as a thinly-veiled attack on Mr Szeto Wah, chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, a group set up to protest against the Tiananmen crackdown.
He disclosed recently that Chinese officials had offered him a private trip to Beijing to settle the differences between the central government and dissidents in Hong Kong.
He rejected the offer and made it public, causing great embarrassment to Beijing.
In another indication of its get-tough attitude, China told Hong Kong Secretary for Administration Donald Tsang recently that the territory's 'high degree of autonomy' came with Beijing's approval and that it should never forget its place as just a region under central government rule.
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