EU presses for Hong Kong electoral reform after ‘politically challenging’ 2016
Call contradicts earlier opinion of legal chief at Beijing’s liaison office
The European Union has urged Hong Kong to kick-start electoral reform, saying it would give the government greater legitimacy to tackle the city’s social and economic challenges.
But speaking at an academic conference on Hong Kong affairs held in Beijing on Saturday, the liaison office’s Wang, a former Tsinghua University law dean, said: “Political reform has failed after so many years.
“[Hong Kong] cannot afford to dedicate energy to political reform in the next five or 10 years, instead of housing, people’s livelihoods and the economy.”
The annual report is released in line with a commitment given to the European Parliament in 1997.
The report noted that parts of Hong Kong society were concerned about a gradual erosion of the city’s promised high degree of autonomy, with negative trends in press freedom in reporting on domestic and foreign policy developments of China.
But it concluded that, overall, the “one country, two systems” principle continued to work well in 2016, as the rule of law remained the guiding principle for the government and society at large, along with freedom of speech and freedom of information generally being upheld.