LC: Hong Kong is very different under “one country two systems.” We finished our colonial status in 1997 and became part of the mainland under “one country two systems.” We have a high degree of autonomy but not complete autonomy and we are definitely not independent. We do not have the same disagreements with the mainland that Taiwan has, particularly over sovereignty issues — whether Taiwan is an independent state or whether Taiwan is part of the Republic of China, which includes the mainland — so the political preconditions are very different and the conditions for democratic development again are different from Taiwan’s. We never had our own government until 1997 so the high degree of autonomy of the Hong Kong people is a short-term phenomenon. Before that we were a colonial government.
TT: Much has been made of universal suffrage in Hong Kong, what are your feelings about that?
LC: Although this may not be so politically correct in Hong Kong to highlight this point, but this is the point that we do not have a self-contained democracy in Hong Kong in that the democratic process in Hong Kong doesn’t end in Hong Kong itself. When we have the first universal suffrage in 2017 to elect our chief executive according to our Basic Law, the elected person has to be appointed by the central authorities in Beijing and this appointment is a substantive appointment as well as ceremonial. It is through the appointment of this elected person by Beijing that Beijing [grants] this high degree of autonomy into Hong Kong. So again, the situation we have in Hong Kong is not just different from the situation in Taiwan, it is pretty different from many other parts of the world too.
TT: I’d like to turn to the election for chief executive in Hong Kong in 2012. How do you see the election playing out?
LC: It’s too early to say and as people say, a week is a long time in politics. We still have three years to go and a lot of water will have to go under the bridge.
TT: There have been rumors that you will run for chief executive in 2012.
LC: This rumor has been around for the last 20 years — since 1988 really. My own guiding principle is simple. I have been serving the public of Hong Kong for at least 20 years in various positions. And whatever I can do for Hong Kong I’ll try my very best to do. It isn’t a question of what official position I want to hold for my own personal glorification. It is a question of what I can do in that position. And my understanding of the nature of and demand of public office is very similar to what Dr Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) said in 1923; I think it was, namely, you want to make achievements [and] you don’t want to be a big government official just for the sake of it. It’s a question of what you can do for the people not the title you can gain for yourself.
This interview has been condensed and edited.
RSS