China seen adopting softer approach to HK
China seen adopting softer approach to HK
By Tan Ee Lyn
HONG KONG (Reuter): China is showing clear signs of softening
its often combative approach to Hong Kong in the countdown to
next year's handover, political analysts and politicians say.
The first signals emerged with Foreign Minister Qian Qichen's
surprise announcement last month that Beijing was prepared to
tolerate dissenting views within the Selection Committee being
formed to choose Hong Kong's future leaders.
Signs of Beijing treading a more moderate line were reinforced
when it responded to an offer of talks by Hong Kong's Democratic
Party -- the first received by the party after a long string of
failed attempts.
The trend was enhanced, analysts said, by senior official Lu
Ping's conciliatory comments to visiting British Minister for
Hong Kong, Jeremy Hanley, in Beijing on Tuesday.
Lu, who has refused to meet Governor Chris Patten and had lost
no opportunity to verbally attack the last British governor, told
Hanley that Patten would be welcome at Hong Kong's handover
ceremony next year.
Lu even said he would was looking forward to shaking Patten's
hand.
China had previously objected to Patten's presence at the
ceremony -- which has been held hostage by animosity between the
two sovereign powers. The distrust has meant that the two have
yet to agree what form the function would take.
"This is a smart move by Beijing. It puts China in a moderate
light," said Peter Cheung, an associate professor of political
science at the University of Hong Kong.
China told Hong Kong's Democratic Party on Monday it hoped the
party could join the work of preparing and building the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region (SAR) after the handover.
But it also stuck to its guns by insisting that before talks
can begin, the party would first have to abide by rules governing
the set up of a Selection Committee to choose the territory's
future leaders.
The Selection Committee is a 400-member body responsible for
naming Hong Kong's first post-handover leader and a provisional
legislature that would replace the current elected chamber after
the handover at midnight on June 30, 1997.
The Democratic Party, whose leaders have been branded
subversives by Beijing, is adamantly opposed to the dissolution
of the elected chamber. While welcoming the opportunity for a
dialogue, it is declining to take part in the Selection
Committee.
"The more moderate (Beijing) leaders are beginning to realize
what's at stake and they realize they have to start taking a more
moderate approach," said Michael DeGolyer, associate professor at
Hong Kong's Baptist University who is in charge of a long-term
study into the transition.
China's aim of reunification with Hong Kong and Taiwan and the
high political stakes involved indicated Beijing was more willing
to accommodate a wider spectrum of views if that ensures a stable
transition, said political commentator Terry Cheng.
"It seems that within the Chinese leadership, the line of
greater openness and tolerance has triumphed over the tougher
line," he said.
However, some wondered if the softer stance would be a
permanent policy shift.
"If it is a move by (President) Jiang Zemin and Qian, then it
has a more solid foundation and it becomes a policy towards Hong
Kong. If it's only Qian's initiative, then it becomes more
tenuous," DeGolyer said.