Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers were to meet a senior Chinese official yesterday to discuss demands for democratic reforms, the highest-level contact between the two sides since China took back the former British colony in 1997.
"This is a huge breakthrough for us. It is the first time China has agreed such a senior official could meet Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp," legislator Frederick Fung said.
"We really hope that this is the start of more communication between Beijing and Hong Kong's democracy camp," he said.
The meeting comes as Beijing is preparing to review clauses in Hong Kong's constitution later this week on how its leaders and lawmakers may be chosen from 2007.
Critics say the review is a clear signal that Beijing plans to assert its authority more forcefully over Hong Kong, which was promised a high degree of autonomy under a "one country, two systems" principle at the handover.
The review also reflects fears in Beijing that calls for full democracy for Hong Kong could spread to the mainland and ultimately lead to demands for independence for the territory.
Political analysts also described the meeting as a major breakthrough, but said it was not yet clear if Beijing was really softening its hard-line stance.
"It is a compromise from Beijing to win over Hong Kong people, showing it is honoring its promise to hear all sides about electoral reforms," said Timothy Wong at the Chinese University.
"But we will still need to see if it will really take different views on board," Wong said.
Fung and two other lawmakers had planned to fly to Beijing yesterday morning to try to stop the Chinese parliament from reviewing the territory's constitution. But Fung said China had agreed to a meeting in Hong Kong instead.
"We have agreed to meet instead a Chinese official from the [Hong Kong-China] Liaison Office who is of ministerial level. The Liaison Office has also promised us that our views will be delivered by today to Beijing," Fung said.
"We will tell the official that Beijing's interpretation of the constitution will damage `one country, two systems.' It is also doing this without first consulting Hong Kong people, which will tell the world it can do anything it likes to Hong Kong."
Political commentators and pro-democracy forces believe Beijing has already ruled out full democracy for Hong Kong after pointing to large anti-government protests in the territory last year and turmoil in Taiwan after elections this month.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) has refused to appear before the territory's legislature to answer questions over democratic reforms, legislators said yesterday.
All 21 of Hong Kong's pro-democracy lawmakers signed a letter asking the Beijing-appointed chief executive to attend an emergency session of the legislature to discuss universal suffrage.
However, the legislators were told by a spokeswoman for Tung that he was too busy to attend the proposed hearing, pro-democracy legislator Margaret Ng said.
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