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US Consul Richard Boucher yesterday called on China not to abolish the elected legislature. The comments were made to the American Chamber of Commerce in his first major speech as Consul.

'Democracy is good. Elections are good. Voting is good,' he said. 'People who are elected have a mandate to serve and should continue through their terms.' Mr Boucher recalled that when he left Asia a decade ago, prophecies were being made of a flight of capital, a brain drain, a property market crash. 'None of these forecasts came to pass,' he said.