Pro-democracy parties made smaller than expected gains in Hong Kong elections, which were seen as a referendum on the territory's Beijing-backed rulers, results released yesterday showed.
Democratic leaders expressed disappointment at their performance in Sunday's poll, despite securing a majority of the popular vote in an election marked by the highest-ever turnout in the former British colony.
The pro-democracy camp won a convincing 18 of the 30 legislative council seats which are chosen by the territory's 3.2 million voters, picking up 58.6 percent of ballots cast.
But pro-Beijing parties retained control of the council. The remaining 30 council seats are reserved for so-called functional constituencies representing mainly the business community and chosen by just 200,000 voters.
Calling the election "open and fair," Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
"This is a good election result. It was held in a fair, open and transparent manner and we are looking forward to working with the members of the new legislature," he said.
The election was fought against the backdrop of increasingly vocal calls for full democracy in the territory and efforts by Beijing to dampen such aspirations -- because of fears that a rush towards democracy would unsettle China.
The pro-democracy camp in total secured 25 seats on the 60-seat council, up from the 22 it previously held but down on projections of 28 or 29.
Pro-Beijing parties and independents who normally support them held the remaining seats, apparently undermining the democracy camp's case that voters would punish Beijing for ruling out fully democratic elections in 2007.
"I broke into tears" after hearing we had not won control, a defiant Yeung Sum (
However Yeung remained defiant, calling the result a "big step forward" and saying some good had come from the election.
"[The result] simply demonstrated that the majority of the people decided that they still want democracy."
China hailed the polls as the "most democratic" in Hong Kong's history. It cautioned lawmakers to "be loyal to their vows and seriously carry out their work ... and bear in mind the overall and long-term interest of China as well as Hong Kong."
Beijing had tried to sway voters with economic incentives and patriotic events including a visit by the country's Olympic team.
Critics also claim it orchestrated a smear campaign involving allegations of sex and property scandals involving democrats.
The election was seen as a referendum on the city's sentiment towards Beijing following 14 months of turmoil when the Chinese leadership was accused of interfering in the running of the city.
Results were delayed when electoral officials ordered a recount of ballots cast on Hong Kong Island, following allegations by pro-democracy candidates that rules had been breached.
Analysts blamed the poorer than expected result on the democrats' poor election strategy.
"The deck is stacked against them," said Paul Harris, politics and government associate professor at Lingnan University. But he said parties had not used the complicated electoral system to their favor and had fielded the wrong combinations of candidates.
Some 55.6 percent of the 3.2 million registered voters turned out, the highest number of ballots ever cast in any election in Hong Kong.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS