PUBLISHED : Friday, 04 April, 2014, 11:18am
UPDATED : Friday, 04 April, 2014, 4:51pm

Prospects for Democracy and Press Freedom in Hong Kong

Under China’s “one country, two systems” policy, Hong Kong residents enjoy greater freedom and autonomy than people in mainland China, including freedoms of speech, press, and religion. China has stated it intends to allow Hong Kong residents to elect their Chief Executive by universal suffrage for the first time in 2017 and to elect Hong Kong’s Legislative Council by universal suffrage in 2020. As Hong Kong’s government contemplates electoral reform in the run-up to the 2017 election, concerns are growing that China’s central government will attempt to control the election by allowing only pro-Beijing candidates to run for Chief Executive. Concerns over press freedom have also grown in the wake of several incidents in which journalists have been violently attacked or fired.

The roundtable will feature two prominent advocates for Hong Kong democracy, Martin Lee and Anson Chan, who will examine the prospects for Hong Kong’s democratic development.
Panelists:

Martin Lee: Barrister, founding Chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, former Member of the Drafting Committee for the Basic Law, and former Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (1985–2008).

Anson Chan: Former Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong, former Member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (2007–2008), and Convener of Hong Kong 2020, a political group working toward achieving universal suffrage in the 2017 election for Chief Executive and 2020 Legislative Council elections.

google translate
根據中國的“一個國家，兩種制度”的方針，香港居民享有更大的自由和自主權的人比在中國大陸，包括言論自由，新聞和宗教。中國已表示有意允許香港居民選舉自己的行政長官由普選產生，第一次在2017年，並在2020年選出香港的立法會由普選產生。由於香港政府考慮選舉改革在運行到2017年大選，愈來愈受到關注，中國中央政府將試圖通過只允許親北京的候選人參選行政長官控制的選舉。記者被暴力攻擊或是被開除之後，幾個事件也令人對新聞自由更加憂心。



Pan-democratic heavyweights Anson Chan Fang On-sang and Martin Lee Chu-ming met with US House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi this morning.

The pair, who are on a two-week visit to the United States and Canada, met with the minority leader of the House of Representatives in Washington early on Friday morning Hong Kong time, which was Thursday in the US.

Chan, the former chief secretary and convenor of pro-democracy group Hong Kong 2020, and Lee, the Democratic Party’s founding chairman, are believed to have touched on Hong Kong’s constitutional development with Pelosi, formerly the speaker of the House of Representatives.

Lee had previously discussed the city’s democracy status with Pelosi in 2009.



The meeting came after the pair attended a roundtable organised by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) on Hong Kong’s prospects of democracy and press freedom at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington.

Chairman of the CECC, Senator Sherrod Brown, described the future of freedom and democracy in Hong Kong as being “under serious threat”.

“China promised to let the people of Hong Kong freely elect their leaders...China is backtracking on these promises,” said Brown, a Democrat, in a statement issued after the hour-long meeting. “This Commission has made it a priority to monitor and report on developments in Hong Kong, and we will continue to do so.”

CECC co-chairman and Republican congressman Christopher Smith expressed concerns on the city’s “steady erosion of press freedom”, and in particular, the knife attack on former Ming Pao Daily editor-in-chief Kevin Lau Chun-to and the abrupt sacking of former Commercial Radio host Li Wei-ling.

“If given a real choice, people everywhere vote to advance representative governments that protect the rule of law and the fundamental freedom,” said Smith. “The people of Mainland China do not have such a choice and attempts to pursue universally-recognised rights are often met with brutality and harassment.”

“This cannot be Hong Kong’s future.”

Starting their visit last weekend, Chan and Lee gave a speech on the city’s democratic future in an Asia Society event on Monday. They are expected to visit Canada this weekend to deliver speeches on political reform.

http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1464545/anson-chan-and-martin-lee-meet-us-democratic-leader-nancy-pelosi