Hong Kong's top democracy advocates pledged their strong commitment to the "one country, two systems" concept and their equal opposition to Taiwanese independence in Washington on Thursday as they testified before a Senate subcommittee hearing called in response to Beijing's efforts to prevent universal suffrage in Hong Kong.
"We support a one-China policy and one country, two systems," Hong Kong Democratic Party founder Martin Lee (
Later he told reporters: "In Hong Kong there is no question of independence. The Democratic Party is opposed to Taiwan's independence."
At the hearing, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia Randall Schriver issued a stern warning to China on behalf of the US that relations between the two countries will "suffer" if China does not respect Hong Kong's desire for continued democratization.
In his testimony, Schriver warned that "it is important that China understand our strong interest in the preservation of Hong Kong's current freedoms, as well as our interest in the continued democratization of Hong Kong as called for in the Basic Law."
"US-China relations will suffer if the cause of freedom and democracy suffers in Hong Kong. That outcome would not be good for people in Hong Kong, in Beijing or in the United States," he said.
Lee and three of his supporters traveled to Washington at the committee's request to testify about China's moves to prevent Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's (
They also spoke about Beijing's efforts to prevent pro-democracy activists such as Lee and his delegation from running for elected posts by labeling the activists as non-patriots, and therefore ineligible for leading Hong Kong.
Both Beijing and Tung have voiced strong opposition to the hearing and to Lee's trip to Washington as interference in internal Chinese affairs, reflecting what has become a new area of friction between the US and China in recent months over the Hong Kong democracy issue.
Meanwhile, in response to ques-tions from subcommittee Chairman Sam Brownback, a leading supporter of Taiwan in Congress, Schriver would not draw a parallel between Washington's policy toward Taiwan and its policy toward Hong Kong.
"I think they are two very different cases and how we manage the policy is very different," Schri-ver said.
He said the only commonality is that US supports democracy in both places.
Regarding Taiwan, he said, "we're proud and we admire what they've done there."
In contrast, he noted, China sees a relationship between Taiwan and Hong Kong because the one country, two systems principle "was developed with Taiwan in mind, prior to the Hong Kong experience. So they have some incentive to want that to succeed [in Hong Kong], to do well so that it will be an attractive model to Taiwan."
He also pointed out that while China is trying to delay or block Hong Kong's democratization, Taiwan's democratization "has been rapid and been successful.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS