Future Hong Kong Leader Defers to China on Rights
HONG KONG — At a black-tie “Leader of the Year†ceremony here Thursday night, the mystery was not whose name was in the envelope: Clearly it would be Tung Chee-hwa, recently anointed Hong Kong’s next chief executive. Rather, the suspense was whether the leader-in-waiting would stand up for Hong Kong or stay in line with China in the struggle over the future of human rights in the territory.
That answer soon was made plain. After the hand-over, Tung confirmed, political stability will come first in Hong Kong--even at the expense of political freedom.
“What is more important to the community--social order, inconvenience caused to the public at large, or individual rights?†the tuxedo-clad Tung asked a quiet audience in his acceptance speech.
Tung had maintained a four-day silence while controversy swirled over a proposed tightening of controls on public protests and free association after China’s takeover of the territory from Britain in July.
In his calm, smooth defense of the controversial proposals made earlier this week by a group of China-picked legal specialists to curtail some of Hong Kong’s human rights safeguards, Tung dashed hopes that he will depart from Beijing’s dictates to intervene on Hong Kong’s behalf.
The legal group recommended: removing articles from Hong Kong’s 1991 Bill of Rights that they claim will conflict with the post-colony constitution, known as the Basic Law; restoring strict controls on freedom of assembly and protests; scrapping electoral reforms introduced by British Gov. Chris Patten in 1992; and banning political groups’ links with international organizations.
“Some people in this community would like you to believe this is a step backward on democracy and a step backward on human rights,†Tung said. “This is not true.â€
He said changing the laws is part of a process of reexamining Hong Kong’s own values “as the masters of our own house.â€
The move is partly a matter of China showing who is boss.
Shen Guofang, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Patten is to blame for the confusion because he had altered the laws without Beijing’s consent.
“I want to remind the British authorities of Hong Kong: Today’s Chinese government is not the Chinese government of before 1949,†Shen said in Beijing on Wednesday. “We cannot accept others forcing their ways on us.â€
The proposals have drawn outrage from the colony’s lawyers, human rights activists and world leaders who had been hoping that China would not press forward with the changes that defy international human rights conventions that Hong Kong has signed.
Financial Secretary Donald Tsang warned of spooking Hong Kong residents, as well as international investors.
“If you can’t convince the people of Hong Kong, people may take to the streets, some may keep their frustration in their hearts, some in the civil service may quit. Some may emigrate,†he told the South China Morning Post. “Investors are similar. . . . If they aren’t [happy], they will leave.â€
Britain’s Foreign Office summoned the Chinese ambassador to lodge a formal protest against the proposals, and the new U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, called them “unjustified and unnecessary†in her confirmation hearings.
Patten, in a special legislative session Thursday, dryly mocked members who had switched to Beijing’s camp and supported the proposals to weaken Hong Kong’s civil liberties. He used their own speeches once made in praise of the measures.
Targeting lawmakers who also sit on the Beijing-backed shadow legislature--which will replace the elected one July 1--Patten read aloud their past comments lauding the now-endangered Bill of Rights.
The performance had the legislature, including the subjects of the barbs, rocking with laughter.
But Patten added a sober note. “There is a difference between an about-turn and a revolving door,†he said. “People in Hong Kong are going to have to stand up for their existing way of life.â€
Tung, who had once been an advisor to the governor, agreed at least in part with Patten on Thursday night: “What is important for us in Hong Kong is to decide for ourselves what we want. We should not be distracted by people in Hong Kong, or overseas, who tell us what we need to do. We need to find our own way forward.â€
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