Hong Kong's government has sought to check growing calls for a referendum on democracy in the Chinese territory as a report yesterday said the Catholic Church had backed a territory-wide poll.
A government spokesman labelled as impractical efforts by pro-democracy lawmakers to hold a non-binding referendum to gauge opinion on whether or not rulers in Beijing should allow the city to elect its political leader.
China has already ruled out such a vote, but if the government did not approve, proponents have said, they would organize their own unofficial poll.
The government said "the idea of a referendum is not practical" and not in accordance with the Basic Law, the city's mini-constitution.
"It would amount to a waste of time and energy, and a needless distraction for the community," a government statement said.
It stressed that it was taking seriously calls for electoral reform and that a process of gradual change had been put in motion.
Proponents hope a yes-vote would send a clear signal to China, which has ruled Hong Kong since 1997, that citizens want full democracy by 2007 when the incumbent, Beijing-appointed Tung Chee-hwa, must stand down.
In calling for a referendum, democrats hope China would reverse a ruling in April against a swift transition to universal suffrage.
Their hopes for a big yes-vote were buoyed by pro-democracy candidates' share of the vote in September legislative elections.
Democrats won 60 percent of the vote, although that only translated into 25 of the 60 legislative seats.
Lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan turned up the heat on Sunday in a radio broadcast when he accused Tung of betraying Hong Kong by opposing a referendum.
And the Catholic Church has thrown its weight behind the effort, offering the use of its offices and schools as polling stations, the South China Morning Post newspaper said yesterday.
The outspoken head of the 250,000-worshipper strong diocese, Bishop Joseph Zen, told the newspaper the church's more than 300 schools and offices could be used if the government did not back the referendum call.
China is said to fear that granting Hong Kong more democracy would cause instability. It is also believed to be concerned that if it gave way to Hong Kong democrats it would come under pressure to do the same on the mainland under pressure from similar groups there.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing