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China aide: UK stirred up trouble with HK democracy

A top Chinese official accused Britain of introducing democracy near the end of its colonial rule in Hong Kong to deliberately stir up conflict with Beijing and preserve British interests in the territory, local media reported yesterday.

"Western colonists are used to speeding up Western-style democracy to provoke political conflict and to polarize society after leaving the place," Wang Rudeng (王如登), assistant to the director of China's representative office in Hong Kong, was quoted by the South China Morning Post and other newspapers as saying.

"During such chaos, they can nurture their agents to maintain their influence as a sovereign power, so that they can keep their hands on it," Wang said.

A British Consulate-General spokesman called Wang's comments "complete nonsense."

Britain introduced democratic reforms in Hong Kong only toward the end of its rule. The last 60-member colonial legislature had just 20 elected seats.

After Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Beijing replaced the partly-elected legislature with a temporary body stacked with its allies.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), was chosen by an 800-member committee that tends to side with Beijing.

But Beijing has gradually allowed the general public to elect more lawmakers. In the last election, 24 of 60 legislative seats were chosen by the public, while the rest were picked by special interest groups and the committee that picked Tung. In September elections, the general public will select representatives for 30 seats.

Hong Kong's mini-constitution sets full democracy as an eventual goal, but calls for gradual reform and provides no timetable.

Earlier this month, China refused to allow direct elections for Hong Kong's leader in 2007 and the territory's entire legislature in 2008 -- a move that quashed popular hopes for democratic reform and drew condemnation from both the US and Britain.

Beijing says a rush to democracy will endanger stability and economic growth.

When asked if Britain's proxies in Hong Kong included vocal China critic and pro-democracy lawmaker Martin Lee (李柱銘), Wang said "everyone knows who they are."

But Lee denied he was a British proxy.

"How can I be one when I'm democratically elected?" he said.

Lee said Wang was referring to people who were appointed by the colonial government who have remained active in Hong Kong politics since 1997.

Wang's office referred inquiries to the Hong Kong office of China's foreign ministry, which did not immediately respond to a query.
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