Taiwan accused of HK meddling
A Beijing official in Hong Kong yesterday accused Taiwan of interfering in the special administrative region's affairs a day after Taipei said it supported universal suffrage for the city in 2012 or earlier.
The accusation came from an official at the central government's liaison office who sternly denounced Taiwan for meddling in Hong Kong's affairs. The official's comments were reported by Xinhua last night.
The official said it was a barefaced display of how the Taiwanese authorities had interfered in Hong Kong affairs under the name of democracy.
The report quoted the official as saying that leading officials from Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council and Government Information Office who took part in a teleconference on Hong Kong and cross-strait democratic development were using the 'Taiwanese democratic experience' under the guise of academic discussion.
The official said Taiwanese officials were groundlessly accusing Beijing of interfering in Hong Kong's democratic development. They also had too much to say on Hong Kong's electoral system.
Sunday's conference was organised by Hong Kong's Democratic Development Network and the Friends of Hong Kong and Macau Association in Taiwan. Participants included Hong Kong lawmakers, Taiwanese officials and academics.
At the conference, Mainland Affairs Council chairman Joseph Wu Jau-shieh said Taiwan stood ready to support the early implementation of democracy in Hong Kong. He said they supported universal suffrage in the city in 2012, and 'the quicker, the better'.
He said the Taiwanese were standing united with Hong Kong people in their fight for democracy.
