Supporters of Hong Kong's pro-democracy candidate for the city's leadership yesterday accused China's government of hacking into his computer and using false information to discredit him.
Lawmaker Alan Leong's (
"We have software built in to track the hackers -- and they all have Beijing IP [Internet Protocol] addresses," said fellow Lawmaker Audrey Eu (
An IP is the electronic address code given to a Web-connected computer.
"It is what we expected and quite common, especially in the run-up to an election here," Eu added.
Eu said that the hackers had doctored Leong's computer files before making them available online to cast doubt on his political independence.
The altered documents made it appear as though Leong had received huge donations from Taiwan and from the US.
"We are not so concerned, because Alan has nothing to hide -- everything we do is above board," Eu said. "All these allegations are lies."
Leong has put his name forward as a protest candidate to run against Beijing-backed Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權) when the next chief executive is chosen in March.
The lawyer and lawmaker has no chance of winning -- the electorate is made up of just 800 mostly pro-Beijing elites who will almost certainly vote for Beijing's favoured candidate, Tsang.
But he hopes at least to draw Tsang into debate and push his pro-democracy movement's vision of a Hong Kong where leaders are elected by universal suffrage.
Beijing is believed to have been behind a series of attacks, threats and smear campaigns against pro-democracy candidates in past elections.
In the run-up to the 2004 legislative polls -- in which half of the 60 lawmakers are directly elected -- some members of the electorate were threatened with violence or financial ruin if they voted for pro-democracy candidates.
Beijing is also accused of pressuring the local media to write sympathetic pieces about pro-Beijing candidates.
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