Chinese National People’s Congress Standing Committee Chairman Zhang Dejiang (張德江) on Thursday closed his three-day visit to Hong Kong with a strong statement against local calls for greater autonomy and even independence from China, a movement that has persisted amid fears that the territory’s liberties are eroding.
“If we forgo ‘one country, two systems’ and the Basic Law, Hong Kong would undoubtedly rot,” Zhang said. “Any advocacy for self-determination, Hong Kong independence and the like will not succeed.”
The Basic Law is Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, and “one country, two systems” is the arrangement under which the territory is guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and civil liberties unknown in mainland China.
Hong Kong’s special status expires in 2047, the 50th anniversary of the former British colony’s return to Chinese sovereignty.
Hong Kong officials imposed tight security for Zhang’s visit, fearing action by the city’s many young pro-democracy demonstrators. Wherever Zhang went, whole areas were barricaded, and traffic was paralyzed. Protest banners were swiftly taken down, even one hung on a hillside far from where Zhang was to appear.
Minutes before Zhang’s speech on Thursday morning, young protest leader Joshua Wong (黃之鋒) and four other pro-democracy activists tried to intercept his motorcade on a highway, having camped out overnight nearby waiting for the chance. They were arrested when they made a dash for the highway shortly before the motorcade arrived.
“If I had the chance to express my political opinion with dignity, I don’t think it is necessary for us to plan such things,” protester Nathan Law (羅冠聰) said.
Wong and Law were prominent leaders of the Umbrella movement protests in 2014, during which pro-democracy demonstrators blocked major streets in Hong Kong for months.
Zhang, as chairman of China’s top legislative body, presided over a decision limiting the scope of electoral overhaul in Hong Kong, which set off the protests.
Since those protests failed to achieve their goals, some of the activists involved have taken a harder line, going so far as to demand that Hong Kong be allowed to secede from China — an idea Beijing views with anathema, as Zhang’s remarks on Thursday emphasized.
Law and Wong recently formed a political party to advocate a citywide referendum on Hong Kong’s future after 2047, which would include the option of independence.
“We want to send a message that Hong Kong people should have the right to self-determine their city’s future,” Law said on Thursday.
“They should have the confidence that when people have a choice to choose the sovereignty of Hong Kong, they would choose ‘one country, two systems,’” Law added.
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