Posted on 09/10/2004 5:59:35 AM PDT by OESY
...Beijing and its minions have subjected politicians, journalists and individual voters in that city to some ugly threats, and worse.... Despite widespread popular support, democratic candidates are not expected to gain effective control of the Legislative Council (LegCo)....
[E]arlier this year it looked like pro-democracy forces might win at least 30 seats. Then China went on the offensive, denigrating or intimidating democratic candidates and sympathizers. The leader of the pro-democracy camp, the dignified Martin Lee, was called a "clown" and unpatriotic. Mr. Lee's late father was branded a "traitor." China's government hounded other pro-democracy candidates, throwing one into a mainland prison on charges of consorting with a prostitute. Popular radio show hosts critical of the Communist Party suffered mysterious attacks by vandals....
Beijing's goal seems to be a rubber-stamp legislature that will allow Mr. Tung to push through a set of draconian "anti-subversion" laws. That would break another promise made to the city in 1997 -- namely, that its own government, and not Beijing, would administer the laws ensuring civil liberties. Beijing was forced to withdraw the subversion bills last year when half a million Hong Kongers marched in the streets in protest, convincing some legislators not elected through universal suffrage to unite with elected ones in opposition.
...China's political elites, and the vast majority of its 1.3 billion people, want their country to become a global power, but only greater democracy can produce the social and political cohesion necessary to that goal. Stifling debate in Hong Kong hardly furthers that process.
Beijing's treatment of Hong Kong already has badly damaged any hopes that Taiwan, another piece of capitalist territory that Beijing covets and claims sovereignty over, will ever voluntarily accept "one country, two systems."...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Ping
Right on schedule. Next time they may set up their own Guardian Council a la Iran, which can veto any legislation they do not like.
The PRC is acting like they've already won the next world war. When hubris becomes this obvious this early, we've got trouble.
I concur. I see Jiang Zemin leading the wave of Chinese hubris. However, Chinese are acting too soon for their own good. As a result, they will be going down.
Hot headed as always. They do have a way of convulsing themselves every so often.
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