Hong Kong's likely next leader said yesterday he wants to move toward full democracy gradually, echoing China's line on the matter and rejecting popular demands for quick democratic reform.
Donald Tsang (
``I think right now, to force a timetable [for democracy] is a very difficult,'' Tsang, Hong Kong's former No. 2 official, said in his first campaign news conference.
Hong Kongers have held large protests in recent years demanding popular elections, but China ruled out changes in the near term last year. Hong Kong's new leader will be picked by an 800-member committee loyal to China on July 10, and Tsang is the clear frontrunner.
Political analysts have also doubted Tsang's desire to fight for more democracy.
``He will be rather obedient to the central Chinese government,'' said James Sung (
Sung said Tsang's hands are also tied by Hong Kong's economic dependence on China, which has bestowed the territory favors such as a free-trade deal.
Critics say Tsang's campaign for the leadership post is a political farce because of his expected victory. The leader selection committee is dominated by Beijing's local allies.
Tsang's two opponents -- an opposition party leader and an ex-convict legislator -- are considered long shots.
But Tsang said he didn't think the election was a charade. He said his goal wasn't just to win the approval of the leader selection panel, but also ``the hearts and conviction of the people of Hong Kong.''
Several activists protested outside the hotel where Tsang spoke, denouncing the electoral system, chanting, ``small-circle elections are beneath pigs and dogs.''
Other than appealing to the 800 voters, Tsang promised to campaign among the masses and take calls from regular citizens on radio shows. He stressed his humble beginnings.
``I'm an ordinary man from an ordinary home,'' he said, adding that before he joining the government he had been a pharmaceuticals salesman.
Tsang's reluctance to paint himself as a full-fledged democracy advocate will likely bolster his credibility with Beijing loyalists in Hong Kong, who are believed to doubt the former colonial official's allegiance to China.
Tsang was knighted for his service during Hong Kong's British rule.
Asked about his views on China's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters occupying Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989, Tsang noted China's economic progress and that it had also benefited Hong Kong.
``I think ... analyzing this event from this perspective is more rational,'' he said.
Tsang served as acting leader until last week, covering for Tung Chee-hwa (
Tsang was barred from political campaigning as an official, so he tendered his resignation last week. China formally approved his resignation earlier yesterday, freeing him to launch his election bid.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
Russian hackers last year targeted a Dutch public facility in the first such an attack on the lowlands country’s infrastructure, its military intelligence services said on Monday. The Netherlands remained an “interesting target country” for Moscow due to its ongoing support for Ukraine, its Hague-based international organizations, high-tech industries and harbors such as Rotterdam, the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) said in its yearly report. Last year, the MIVD “saw a Russian hacker group carry out a cyberattack against the digital control system of a public facility in the Netherlands,” MIVD Director Vice Admiral Peter Reesink said in the 52-page
RSS