China warns US over Hong Kong ahead of US Senate hearing
by: YAHOO! News

BEIJING (AFP) - China intensified warnings to the United States to stay out of Hong Kong affairs on the eve of an address to a US Senate hearing by one of the territory's leading democracts.

The second hard-hitting comments on the issue in as many days came after Hong Kong Legislator Martin Lee, the former leader of the Democratic Party, and party colleague James To arrived in Washington to address a US Senate hearing about democracy in the former British colony.

China has been increasingly agitated about demands for more democracy in Hong Kong since huge street protests in the territory last July, and the two legislators have been castigated by Chinese officials for their visit.


"The Chinese people are wise enough to handle Hong Kong affairs according to the law, and any random comments from external forces are not necessary," said foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao in a statement on the ministry website.


"We, the Chinese government, resolutely oppose any attempts to interfere in its internal affairs.


"Hong Kong's democratic issue is China's internal affairs, and the Basic Law has earnestly safeguarded the democracy of Hong Kong and its people's democratic rights."


In recent months, the United States has renewed calls for electoral reform and universal suffrage in Hong Kong.


Lee has said he will tell the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Sub-Committee hearing that Hong Kong people want to see democracy introduced in the territory, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under the "One Country, Two Systems" formula which gives it a high degree of autonomy.


As delegates gathered in Beijing for the annual sitting of China's parliament, the vitriol has been rising.


Gao Siren, director of the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong, questioned Lee's patriotism.


"As what Deng Xiaopeng had said, 'does he respect his own people? does he fully support his own country? and will he do something that won't hurt the stability of Hong Kong?'," he said. "We will have to listen and see."


However Lee has vigorously defended himself.


"Martin Luther King had a dream -- my name is Martin too and I have two dreams," he said on Hong Kong cable TV news from Washington. "I have a dream of democracy in Hong Kong and to be able to return to China."


Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will deliver a speech at the opening the session of the NPC Friday which will be closely watched for any word about developments in Hong Kong.


China is alarmed by the democratic stirrings in Hong Kong because it fears they will inspire similar aspirations in mainland cities, where economic reforms have created a powerful new elite and growing middle class.


It is also concerned that greater calls for democracy will embolden the island of Taiwan, which it considers a breakaway province, to push for formal independence.


Taiwan goes to the polls later this month to elect a new leader. President Chen Shui-bian has also called a referendum on the day of the election that will ask voters to strengthen the island's defenses.





It will also call on voters to back moves for peace talks with China. Beijing sees the referendum as a step towards independence.

The problem is made all the more complex for the Chinese leadership because of the intense international scrutiny of Hong Kong, severely limiting its scope of action.

Beijing though has made clear it believes Hong Kong's political structure must develop in a gradual and orderly manner under the Basic Law, its mini-constitution, which allows for the first directly elected chief executive in 2007.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, handpicked by Beijing, has admitted that political reform will only come following approval by China's top leaders.