No more cult trouble?
While Jiang Zemin's retirement is important for China's political development, it has special significance for Hong Kong. For Tung Chee-hwa, it means the loss of an important patron, someone who was instrumental in installing him as chief executive. There was a special bond between Mr Tung and Mr Jiang, as well as between Mr Tung and former vice-premier Qian Qichen, who was responsible for Hong Kong affairs. Now both men are gone.
Mr Jiang evidently considered Hong Kong his personal portfolio. It was during his presidency that China saw the return of Hong Kong, and later Macau, to its sovereignty. Certainly, Hong Kong's return will be considered one of the great symbolic achievements of Mr Jiang's presidency. When Mr Tung made his periodic duty visits to the capital, he invariably had a private meeting with Mr Jiang. In fact, when Mr Tung was in Beijing last year after the huge July 1 protest, he held another such meeting with Mr Jiang.
Mr Jiang staked his prestige on Mr Tung not once, but twice. In October 2000, with 18 months to go before Mr Tung's first term expired, Mr Jiang was hounded by Hong Kong reporters eager to know if he supported the chief executive for a second term, and if his endorsement amounted to an 'imperial order'. That was when he attacked Hong Kong reporters for being 'too simple and sometimes naive'.
Still, Mr Jiang was not always happy with Mr Tung's performance, in particular with his reluctance to crack down on the Falun Gong movement, banned on the mainland, but not Hong Kong. In December 2000, when Mr Jiang was in Macau to mark the first anniversary of the former Portuguese territory's return to Chinese sovereignty, he was full of praise for Macau Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau-wah. Clearly, however, he had Hong Kong in mind.
He even joked about the similarity of the given names of the two chief executives, both of which contain the syllable 'hua'. But, Mr Jiang pointed out, while Mr Tung's 'hua' was the word for 'Chinese', Mr Ho's 'hua' was written differently, with a metal radical on the left. This, he said jokingly, was why Mr Ho was tougher than Mr Tung.
Indeed, the new Macau government had taken firm action in its first year, with crime sharply down. Moreover, in anticipation of Mr Jiang's visit, the Macau chief executive had taken pains to ensure the security of the visiting president, detaining a number of Falun Gong members. In Hong Kong, however, members of Falun Gong were even allowed to stage demonstrations outside the central government's liaison office.
In fact, it was Mr Jiang's preoccupation with Falun Gong that contributed to the Article 23 crisis last year. The mainland had put pressure on Hong Kong to pass anti-cult legislation, but the Tung administration baulked. However, it secretly agreed to incorporate anti-cult provisions in the upcoming Article 23 legislation.
Subsequently, the government resisted all calls to remove a provision, which provided that Hong Kong would look at the affiliate of any organisation proscribed on national security grounds on the mainland. This provision aroused suspicion within the legal community, but Mr Tung did not agree to dispense with it until after the massive July 1 demonstration last year.
With Mr Jiang now in retirement, perhaps the campaign against Falun Gong will be pressed with less vigour. And Article 23 legislation, whenever it does come back, is unlikely to contain the objectionable provisions that Mr Tung finally agreed to remove. Otherwise, it would simply be a prescription for another crisis.
Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based journalist and commentator
