A pro-democracy lawmaker yesterday accused opponents of toeing Beijing's line by voting against a proposal to consult the public on whether to hold direct elections for Hong Kong's leader and all legislators.
Pro-Beijing and big-business lawmakers who dominate Hong Kong's legislature rejected the nonbinding motion late on Wednesday with a 30 to 18 vote, dealing a blow to the push for quicker democracy in the territory.
"They obviously don't want to upset Beijing on this issue," said Andrew Cheng, who introduced the measure.
"The political inclination now is to be as conservative as possible and suppress dissenting politicians," he said.
Cheng's motion urged the government to seek public views about whether Hong Kong's leader and all lawmakers should be directly elected in 2007 and 2008 respectively. Twelve lawmakers did not vote on Wednesday.
Ordinary citizens in this former British colony currently have no say in electing their leader, who was picked by an 800-member committee loyal to Beijing.
Hong Kong's people are only allowed to choose some of their lawmakers -- though the number will rise to 30 members of the 60-seat Legislative Council in September's elections, up from 24 in the 2000 elections.
Many Hong Kong people are clamoring for full democracy, but Beijing has made it clear that the territory cannot change election rules on its own.
Calls for full democracy have gained momentum since half a million people marched in July against a Beijing-backed anti-subversion bill that many feared would threaten Hong Kong's Western-style freedoms -- guaranteed after the hand-over to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa (董建華) backed down on the anti-subversion bill after the march. People gained a new sense of empowerment and have been pushing for more democracy.
Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, sets out democracy as an eventual goal, but the government has so far provided no timetable.
The law also requires anti-subversion legislation, but also with no time schedule.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘UNWAVERING ALLIANCE’: The US Department of State said that China’s actions during military drills with Russia were not conducive to regional peace and stability The US on Tuesday criticized China over alleged radar deployments against Japanese military aircraft during a training exercise last week, while Tokyo and Seoul yesterday scrambled jets after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols near the two countries. The incidents came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan. “China’s actions are not conducive to regional peace and stability,” a US Department of State spokesperson said late on Tuesday, referring to the radar incident. “The US-Japan alliance is stronger and more
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS