Lee's anti-China words malicious

Democratic Party Chairman Martin Lee's remarks at the Legislative Council on Wednesday were anti-China and anti-Hong Kong and must be seriously refuted and condemned, Ta Kung Pao said in its editorial yesterday. Excerpts follow: Martin Lee made unfair accusations against Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa at the Legislative Council's adjournment meeting on Wednesday. He distorted the facts and made malicious attacks on Tung to achieve certain political goals of his.

Anybody, including individual citizens and legislators, has the right to criticize or comment on the performance of the Chief Executive in his first term of office. Even Tung himself has admitted his governance has not been without fault.

Any such criticism, however, must be based on facts and made with good intention because the target is our own government and leader on which Hong Kong's future well-being depends.

The territory has faced a multitude of challenges since the reunification. These problems have been caused by external factors that were beyond the control of the SAR government, and not by Tung as Lee suggested.

What is more ridiculous is that, while Tung's re-election campaign is already underway, Lee reiterated that Tung had been handpicked by President Jiang Zemin, and said, with special intention, that he was not surprised that Taiwan did not accept the "one country, two systems" arrangement.

We wonder why legislators have been allowed to make such anti- Basic Law remarks and falsely accuse the Chief Executive of being the central government's "puppet". This has posed a serious threat to society, to people's morality and to the rule of law in Hong Kong, and must be seriously refuted and condemned.

-- China Daily, Beijing