China's Hong Kong rule compared to Cultural Revolution

A former top Hong Kong official has denounced China for ruling out full democracy in the near-term for the territory and compared Beijing's handling of demands for free elections with China's violent Cultural Revolution.

During the decade-long revolution unleashed by the late leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) in 1966, millions of people suspected of opposing the communist government were persecuted, often by their own neighbors and colleagues.

Beijing in April ruled that Hong Kongers cannot directly elect their next leader in 2007 and all lawmakers in 2008 despite growing calls for universal suffrage. The move drew sharp criticism in Hong Kong and abroad.

Anson Chan (陳方安), who retired as Hong Kong's No. 2 official, or Chief Secretary for Administration said "the manner in which the central government has handled this whole issue, coupled with its public rhetoric and posturing reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution, have left most Hong Kong people puzzled, hurt and frustrated."

Chan, who is still highly popular, urged Beijing to trust Hong Kongers, saying its fears that the territory will turn into a base of subversion are groundless.

"We have no wish to push for independence nor to destabilize the mainland," she wrote. "We ask our leaders in Beijing to put a little more trust in us. That trust will not be misplaced."

China has claimed that full democracy could breed social and economic instability in the former British colony that was returned to Chinese rule in July 1997 with constitutional guarantees of Western-style civil liberties for at least 50 years.