Hong Kong passes law that could erode autonomy

Hong Kong passed a controversial law yesterday that will erode its autonomy by giving communist China the power to sack the territory's leader.

Democrats and some political analysts have condemned consultations between the Hong Kong administration and Beijing on the proposed law, which was passed last night after 10 hours of marathon debate by lawmakers. The passage triggered a walk-out protest by pro-democratic legislators.

Earlier, activists wrapped a banner with 40,000 signatures around the building of the 60-seat Legislative Council before the start of the marathon debate on the Chief Executive Election Bill.

The protesters called for the direct election of Hong Kong's next chief executive.

"I firmly believe that unless and until we have a government that's directly elected by the people of Hong Kong, we do not have a high degree of autonomy," said Emily Lau (劉慧卿) of the Frontier pro-democracy group.

Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), who took over after Britain returned the former colony to China in 1997, was effectively appointed by Beijing. Hong Kong was promised a high degree of autonomy to keep its civil liberties and capitalist system.

"I'm flabbergasted," Democratic Party leader Martin Lee (李柱銘) said of the proposed legislation and the talks with Beijing. Lee said that under the Basic Law, the territory's post-handover constitution, Hong Kong does not have to consult Beijing before passing laws.

"Once you consult them [Beijing] they want more power," Lee said. "Even if the chief executive were to do something good for Hong Kong ... Beijing can remove him any day."

Political commentators also chided the Hong Kong government's move.

"The government should be criticized that in drafting this legislation it has not given top priority to maintaining a high degree of autonomy," said Joseph Cheng, a social science professor at the City University.

"But I believe the practical political significance is limited because it is understood that Beijing will be very, very careful and it will not try to remove the chief executive without any good reason," he said.