Hong Kong's leader-designate Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) reiterated yesterday he has no intention of speeding up the Chinese territory's progress towards full democracy.
A ruling by China last year that set the city on a slow course towards universal suffrage would not be changed by him or by Beijing, he told the news network CNN.
"I'm sure the election of the chief executive in 2007 will be based on a more wider franchise, more liberal arrangements," he told a gathering of foreign correspondents earlier. "We must be able to demonstrate that we are moving steadily and decisively towards universal suffrage. But in a place like Hong Kong where we started [on the road to democracy] rather late ... we still have a lot of work to do to catch up with a lot of advanced democracies. We have to build up our own political institutions, we have to agree on the best arrangements and the best organization of the legislature to manifest our universal suffrage."
Meanwhile, China's state-run media heaped praise on new Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang Friday, and defended the way he was selected by a Beijing-backed committee.
The China Daily said in an editorial that Tsang's positive attitude was what Hong Kong needed to strengthen "the executive-led regime and steer the city back onto the right track of improving the economy and people's livelihoods."
"The sense of competition and undaunted spirit Tsang showed during the process of securing nominations was indeed praiseworthy," it said.
"He did not slacken his efforts in spite of the lack of a real opponent. Instead, he treated the exercise of seeking nominations like a real election campaign.
"Through this exercise, members of the Executive Committee and the public were able to get to know him better and became more willing to trust him. This has apparently laid a firm foundation for his future governance."
Tsang, who had long been groomed to succeed former leader Tung Chee-hwa (
Despite Hong Kong citizens having no direct say in electing their new leader, the China Daily said the process was fair.
"Tsang's performance has made a mockery of those who criticized the by-election as a `small circle' race," it said.
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