Hong Kong back on track after ‘wasted’ years, China’s Communist Party owns ‘intellectual property’ of city’s democracy as its drafter and defender: think tank leader
- Recent Beijing white paper on the subject ‘full of emotions and selfless love’, director of Tsinghua University’s Centre for Hong Kong and Macau Studies says on Monday
- But no timeline offered for document’s pledge of universal suffrage for city’s chief executive and lawmakers, as this goal remains dependent on ‘practical realities’
Hong Kong’s political development is back on the right track after many wasted years, with the Communist Party and Chinese people owning the “intellectual property” to the city’s emerging brand of democracy, mainland experts on local affairs have declared.
“The white paper exposed the true colours of the British government, which did not bother to introduce democracy during its colonial rule in Hong Kong,” Wang Zhenmin, director of Tsinghua University’s Centre for Hong Kong and Macau Studies, told a Monday press conference in Beijing.
Arguing that only the recent white paper by the central government had provided the correct understanding of Hong Kong’s democracy, he said: “The Chinese constitution and Hong Kong’s Basic Law laid down the foundation for democratic development in Hong Kong. The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people, including Hong Kong compatriots, own the intellectual property of Hong Kong democracy.”
“Whoever genuinely loves and cares about Hong Kong can sense the words full of emotions and selfless love between the lines after reading the white paper,” added Wang, who served as the legal affairs chief of the central government’s liaison office in the city from 2016 to 2018.
Han Dayuan, another speaker at the briefing and a member of the Basic Law Committee which advises Beijing on Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, said the dichotomy between the pan-democratic and pro-establishment camps was unhelpful and worked against uniting Hong Kong society.