A group of Hong Kong democrats will meet officials in the EU and US next week in a bid to step up their campaign for a timetable for full democracy.
Martin Lee (李柱銘), Democratic Party member and former chairman, and another member Sin Chung-kai (單仲偕) will travel to the EU headquarters in Brussels and then Washington to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, congressmen and other officials.
They are also seeking a meeting with European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. Their trip to Brussels will be joined by pro-democracy lawmakers Ronny Tong (
The trip, expected to begin on Tuesday, aims to lobby support for a swift transition to full democracy in the Chinese territory following the recently "undemocratic" reform package proposed by Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang (
"Donald Tsang was trying to hard-sell the completely unacceptable proposal in his recent trips to Canada, US and the UK but his opinions were completely one-sided," Lee said.
"The outside world should know the truth about Hong Kong. We need a timetable for universal suffrage."
The exact dates of the trip and list of officials will be confirmed later this week.
Analysts said the democrats' visit is set to upset Beijing.
In March last year Lee testified before a US Senate panel on democracy in Hong Kong, saying Beijing was interfering in its affairs and that the territory wanted to move quickly towards electing its leader by 2007.
His US mission drew furious criticism from Chinese leaders who accused the democrats of inviting foreign interference.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back in 1997 to Chinese rule, with a guarantee in the Basic Law, the post-colonial constitution, that universal suffrage is the city's ultimate political goal.
However, the Basic Law is unclear on when citizens will be granted full democracy. Beijing last year ruled out direct elections by 2007 when the next leader must be selected, apparently fearing such a move will provoke political instability in the rest of China.
Tsang last month proposed a modest reform package which still failed to set a timetable for universal suffrage. This was quickly opposed by all 25 pro-democracy lawmakers who vowed to block the plan, which needs two-thirds of votes in the 60-member Legislative Council (LegCo) to pass next month.
Democrats are organizing what they hope will be a large-scale protest on Dec. 4. It is also backed by the city's Catholic and Christian leaders who called on believers to take part.
The government, which is concerned its reform package could be defeated in LegCo, has invited astronauts Fei Junlong (
Beijing-backed newspaper Wen Wei Po said yesterday they will make a week-long visit to the city starting from Nov. 27.
Analysts said the government is trying to foster patriotism.
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