A senior Chinese law expert has said Hong Kong isn't ready for full democracy partly because the community lacks a consensus on the issue and people need better patriotic education, local media reported yesterday.
The comments were widely reported in the media because leading Chinese legal academics are believed to serve as the spokesmen for the communist leadership.
The remarks were made on Thursday at a conference in Beijing about Hong Kong's mini Constitution, or "Basic Law." by legal scholar Wang Zhenmin (
"I believe Hong Kong can achieve universal suffrage one day. But we need to conduct research and measure carefully how to approach it," the South China Morning Post quoted Wang as saying.
Wang, deputy dean of Tsinghua University's law school in Beijing, also said Hong Kong needs an anti-subversion law. The measure originally drew intense opposition when officials tried to initiate it in 2003, reported Ming Pao Daily News.
He said there was a lack of civic education that inspires patriotism, the Post reported.
Wang also said Hong Kong's political culture needed to be more mature, the pro-Beijing Wen Wei Po reported.
He said the legislature's defeat of the government's political reform package last year was a sign that Hong Kong wasn't ready for greater reform.
Pro-democracy lawmakers defeated the bill because it didn't include a timeline for when Hong Kong would become democratic.
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