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China rules out elections for HK

Beijing has ruled out allowing direct elections in Hong Kong from 2007 but is ready to admit more people into the tightly-controlled committee that picks the city's leader, a pro-China newspaper said yesterday.

The Wen Wei Po said Beijing will draw the line soon on Hong Kong election reforms, but did not say when the statement would be made.

"The immediate transition to direct elections via one man, one vote has been ruled out but the question of giving political participation to more Hong Kong people is up for discussion," the newspaper said, citing unidentified sources.

Political analysts have long agreed that there is no way Beijing will allow the territory to elect its own leaders, fearing it would lose control over it, but this is the first time that a Beijing mouthpiece has stated so clearly the misgivings of the central government.

Analysts say Beijing is deeply worried that Hong Kong people could elect a leader it cannot trust and challenge it. It also fears growing calls for more democracy in the territory may spill over into the mainland.

Frustrated with the poor performance of the Beijing-backed local government and years of economic hardship, people in Hong Kong have been agitating for full direct elections from 2007, which is possible under the Basic Law, their mini-constitution.

The Sun newspaper said that date had been ruled out by Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong (曾慶紅), the Communist Party's point man on Hong Kong.

Zeng told Hong Kong delegates at the National People's Congress meeting in Beijing this week that he feared direct elections from 2007 would result in a leader Beijing did not trust and a loss of control over Hong Kong, The Sun reported.

Zeng was also worried pro-democracy forces would win a majority in Hong Kong's legislative polls in September, it said.

If democracy lawmakers clinch a majority of the 60 seats, they could derail government policies and pose immense challenges to Beijing-backed Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華). Such a scenario could force Beijing to engineer a dissolution of the lawmaking body with disastrous consequences.

Zeng established a think-tank last December that will help carve out Beijing's strategies in Hong Kong.

Zhu Yucheng (朱育誠), head of the Hong Kong and Macau Research Institute, said on Thursday the think-tank will listen to all voices in Hong Kong, including those of the democratic camp.

His pledge was a marked departure from the harsh rhetoric that has emerged from Beijing in the past few weeks. Chinese media and officials have taken aim at democracy activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong, accusing them of disloyalty.

But President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) and Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) have been far more conciliatory, which analysts say could indicate deep-seated differences about how to handle Hong Kong in the corridors of power in Beijing.
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