Hong Kong official cites value of relations with Taiwan

The Hong Kong government has consistently attached great importance to the positive development in relations with Taiwan, a Hong Kong official said yesterday.

Grace Lui, deputy secretary-general of the Hong Kong Constitutional Affairs Bureau, made the remarks while meeting with a a group of Taiwan journalists who arrived here Tuesday to observe Hong Kong's upcoming legislative elections.

Lui claimed that the Hong Kong government has made many efforts in recent years to promote social, economic and cultural exchanges with Taiwan in recent years.

However, Lui declined to respond to Taiwan reporters' inquiries why Hong Kong has so far not issued a working visa to Taiwan's new representative to the territory.

Lui said it's the Hong Kong government's established policy of refraining from making comments on any specific case.

Asked whether Hong Kong is likely to issue a working visa to Pao Cheng-kang (鮑正剛), Taiwan's new representative to Hong Kong, after the Sept. 12 legislative elections, Lui said the news media need not speculate too much on the issue.

James Chang (張良任), a division chief at the Chung Hwa Travel Service -- the official designation of Taiwan's representative office in Hong Kong, said earlier this week week that he hopes Hong Kong authorities can issue a working visa to Pao as soon as possible to facilitate bilateral exchanges.

Taiwan named Pao to serve as its new envoy to Hong Kong or new managing director of the Chung Hwa Travel Service in May. However, the Hong Kong government has so far not issued a working visa to Pao.

Chang said the visa snub has resulted in inconveniences in the representative office's operations.

"We earnestly hope that Hong Kong authorities can grant Pao a working visa as early as possible," Chang said.

Hong Kong does not recognize the Chung Hwa Travel Service's official status and treats it as a private body. Worse still, Chang said, the Hong Kong government regards Taiwan as part of China and imposes strict restrictions on the representative office's operations.

According to Chang, the office now has more than 90 staff members and less than 20 of them come from Taiwan, resulting in many problems in personnel management. In addition to appealing for Hong Kong's early granting of a visa to Pao, Chang said he also hopes the Hong Kong government can allow more Taiwan officials to work at its representative office.

Hong Kong has recently denied visits by senior Taiwan officials. Among them was Chen Chung-hong (陳崇弘), director of the Mainland Affairs Council's Department of Information and Liaison, who originally planned to head the election observation group to Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong authorities denied his visa application Monday without giving any reasons. As a result, the delegation is being headed by Lo Mu-kun (羅木坤), Chen's deputy.

During her meeting with Taiwan reporters, Lui would not explain why Hong Kong denied a visa to Chen. Instead, she said Hong Kong authorities have actually allowed some Taiwan officials to visit Hong Kong in their proper capacities. She said the news media usually didn't report such cases and only reported those that had been rejected.