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Beijing misstep over new Hong
Kong head
By Janus Lam
HONG KONG - Despite the resignation of
unpopular Tung Chee-hwa as the chief executive of
Hong Kong, Beijing's leaders are having
difficulties in marshaling Hong Kong's
pro-Beijing camp. This is reflected by the
reluctance of Beijing's own supporters to accept
Beijing's choice of Donald Tsang, named a knight
of the British Empire in 1997, to replace Tung in
the top position. Tsang was Tung's deputy and is
acting as interim chief executive.
Tung
was kicked upstairs in mid-March when Beijing
"promoted" him to vice chairman of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference,
important only as a political decoration without
policymaking power. Tung's departure - he claimed
ill-health - had been expected, but it has plunged
the leaderless Hong Kong politics into its own
brand of chaos.
Beijing quickly nominated
Tsang as a candidate for a "by-election" to choose
the next chief executive, but he has not yet found
majority support from the electorate. Indeed,
several parties and political celebrities have
expressed their intentions to run.
A Hong
Kong election committee of 800 political, business
and labor figures, most of whom are expected to
have pro-Beijing sympathies, will gather on July
10 to select the next chief executive. The new
head will serve for only two years, the balance of
Tung's five-year term.
On March 23,
Liberal Party chairman James Tien Pei-chun
admitted that his party had held informal talks
with the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of
Hong Kong, a "royalist" party in favor of Beijing,
about the feasibility of participation. And he did
not rule out the possibility that he himself might
stand.
The Democratic Party will also
single out a candidate in April, chairman Lee
Wing-tat said. Further, it is speculated that the
chairman of the Hong Kong Policy Research
Institute, Paul Kwok Wah Yip, is planning to toss
his hat into the ring.
From a democratic
perspective, a crowded election field often
signals the development of democratic politics. On
the the other hand, the central government in
Beijing may consider crowded as chaotic, unruly
and not amenable to Beijing's direction.
Ever since half million Hong Kong people
paraded to protest against a proposed
anti-sedition bill and against the unpopular
government on July 1, 2003, Beijing has tightened
its reins on the former British colony.
Pre-election provision is a case in point.
Usually, pro-Beijing or "red" politicians are
encouraged and nominated as candidates. Less
promising and less-favored candidates are
persuaded to drop out in order to ensure the
victory of the pro-Beijing candidate.
For
instance, legislators of the Hong Kong Progressive
Alliance, a minor reddish party, renounced their
reappointment under Beijing's canvass in the
Legislative Council election last year. Bowing out
of the legislature, the party merged into the
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong
Kong, under pressure from Beijing.
Back to
the upcoming by-election of chief executive. While
the democrats' run for power is logical and
comprehensible, the reddish parties signing on
comes as a big surprise. Some observers take it as
a sign that Tsang, said to be Beijing's favorite
candidate, does not enjoy overwhelming popularity
among the reddish constituency.
The
opposition
is even checking his background for traces
of impropriety. In October 1997, when presenting
his first policy address, Tung unveiled a
scheme to build at least 85,000 housing apartments
every year, but the plan was challenged and
doomed from the start. When Tung was going to announce
the scrapping of the scheme, then financial
secretary Tsang dissuaded Tung and suggested
that any bad news would further dismay the
Hong Kong people beset by the Asian financial crisis,
according to a source speaking on condition
of anonymity. It was not until June of 2000
that Tung admitted to the press that the scheme
had been called off. Therefore, critics say,
Tsang should take the blame for cloaking the
apartment scheme debacle - a move that had been
erroneously imputed to his boss Tung.
Leung Chun-ying of the Executive Council
is among the skeptics casting doubt on Tsang's
competence to lead Hong Kong. On March 24, Leung
said he anticipated that the new chief executive
could strike an agreement with the Chinese
mainland on mutual recognition of professional
certificates under the program of Closer Economic
Partnership Arrangement (CEPA), a win-win policy
Beijing contrived in order to twist the
competition between Hong Kong and the mainland
into cooperation.
If agreement is reached
and professional certificates issued in Hong Kong
are accepted in the mainland, then certificate
holders will have better access to the vast
mainland job market. In general, certificate
holders are a crucial part of the middle class, an
indispensable cornerstone of the government's
performance and social stability. Nevertheless, no
breakthrough has been made so far on the
agreement, owing to major differences with the
relevant mainland authorities since CEPA went into
effect 14 months ago.
Even Tung, with the
massive support of the central government, failed
to accomplish the mission, not to mention Tsang,
who has much lesser association with Beijing.
The by-election, the first of its kind
since the territory returned to China's embrace in
1997, has stirred wild suspicions. Some say that
Tung's resignation also surprised Beijing, and
Chinese leaders were not prepared for the possible
fallout - a crowded electoral field.
Others say that Tung is a protege of the
"shadow regent", China's former president and
party chief Jiang Zemin, who retired from the post
of commander in chief of the armed forces. They
suggest that Tung's leaving is intended to baffle
the reform-leaning administration of President Hu
Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
(Copyright
2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.
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