TRUE to form, China has chosen to exclude members of the Democratic Party from its second batch of district affairs advisers. While this should spare mainland officials the trouble of having to listen to views they dislike, it will do little good for Hong Kong. It is firmly in the territory's interest for China to listen to a cross-section of community opinion. If the largest political group here is excluded from the consultation process, China's assessments are bound to be lopsided.
It is not good enough for Zhang Junsheng, the Deputy Director of Xinhua (the New China News Agency) to argue that there can be no single group entitled to call itself democratic when the majority of Hong Kong people favour democracy. The Democratic Party is well represented in the Legislative Council and the District Boards precisely because the majority of democracy-loving Hong Kong people voted for it. Mr Zhang's statement shows he has a different understanding of democracy.
In the light of Mr Zhang's statement, Xinhua's choice of advisers is unsurprising. What is surprising is the attitude of Tsang Yok-sing, leader of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong. Members of Mr Tsang's party used to boast they had told Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Lu Ping they thought it was important to have contacts with the Democratic Party and appoint some of its members as advisers. Now Mr Tsang has taken a different line. He claims it is natural to expect China to appoint people with whom it believes it can co-operate.
Natural it may be; a service to Hong Kong it is not. However much Beijing might dislike the Democratic Party's policies, it is as wrongheaded to refuse to talk to a political party which represents such a large proportion of local opinion as it is to refuse to talk to Chris Patten. In a bid to cultivate political favours, many people handpicked by Xinhua will be sorely tempted to tell Beijing what it wants to hear. It would be much more helpful to Hong Kong for China to conduct a constructive dialogue across the political spectrum.
