LIBERAL Legislative Councillors yesterday said Hongkong should not retract the political reform package under pressure from Beijing.
The comments followed a report that China's paramount leader, Mr Deng Xiaoping, had issued a stern warning against Governor Mr Chris Patten's blueprint.
The left-wing Ta Kung Pao yesterday led with a report from the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's most widely circulated daily, that Mr Deng had warned that if Mr Patten failed to withdraw his package, he would suffer losses.
The Yomiuri report quoted a Chinese source as saying that Mr Deng had fiercely criticised the Governor at a meeting with local leaders in Shanghai after the Lunar New Year holiday.
The source quoted the patriarch as saying that while China's open door policy was on track and its economy developing smoothly, the biggest problem was still Hongkong.
Mr Deng said Mr Patten's constitutional reforms package was a major problem.