China justified interpreting parts of Hong Kong's mini-constitution as parliament's "solemn duty" yesterday as lawmakers entered a final day of deliberations before putting a draft to a vote.
Delegates agreed yesterday on the draft interpretation of electoral reforms laid down in Hong Kong's "Basic Law" and were expected to endorse it today.
It is expected to be general in substance and limited to one piece of paper.
Beijing has hosted closed-door deliberations on articles of the law that critics fear will hand China full control over whether and when people in the former British colony may elect their leaders.
China said the leaders of the National People's Congress, or parliament, had to interpret two clauses that set out how the territory's chief executive and lawmakers are chosen because of disputes and confusion in Hong Kong.
Police in Hong Kong broke up an anti-Beijing protest on Friday.
"If such misunderstandings are not clarified by law, the right not differentiated from the wrong and interference not removed, the principle of `one country, two systems' could not be implemented in an all round-way," the China Daily newspaper said yesterday, referring the principle under which the territory was guaranteed wide-ranging autonomy at the 1997 handover.
An editorial by the official Xinhua news agency said the interpretation would "do away with doubts, quell disputes, reach common social consensus, better implement the Basic Law, ensure sound development of Hong Kong's constitutional system and maintain the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong."
The US State Department said on Friday it "strongly supported" the desire of the people in the territory for democracy, electoral reform and universal suffrage.
China and Hong Kong promptly retorted that the territory's constitutional development was none of Washington's business.
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