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HK shows value of independence for Taiwan, MAC says

A senior Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) official said yesterday that Beijing's move to delay direct elections for Hong Kong's leader until 2017 underlined why Taiwan could not accept annexation with China.

MAC Vice Chairman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said that the decision sent a clear signal "that the Chinese Communist Party does not allow genuine democracy."

He said it also showed that the "`one country, two systems' used to rule both Hong Kong and Macau cannot possibly be accepted by the people of Taiwan."

REJECTION

The government has rejected Beijing's offer to run Taiwan using the "one country, two systems" format like in Hong Kong and Macau, under which their freewheeling economies are guaranteed for 50 years.

China's National People's Congress gave a tentative green light on Saturday to the election of Hong Kong's chief executive in 2017, the clearest indication yet of the city's political future.

2012

However, ther resolution ignored Chief Executive Donald Tsang's (曾蔭權) admission in a report earlier this month that the public expected the former British colony's leader to be elected by universal suffrage in 2012.

When the former British colony was handed to China in 1997, Beijing had to make a commitment -- without a fixed date -- to grant it universal suffrage.

In a statement late on Saturday, the MAC said China had not responded to Hong Kongers' demands for democracy.

WARNING

"If the Chinese government continues to ignore the mainstream opinion of people in Hong Kong," it warned, people in the territory "may take more dramatic measures."

"Should this happen, it would turn the Chinese government's pledge to `build a harmonious society' while `walking in the direction of democracy,' into an irony," it said.

The council called on Beijing to allow greater autonomy in Hong Kong as a contribution to international affairs.

Also see: Hong Kongers slam Beijing over 2017 date
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