China warned against foreign meddling in Hong Kong’s politics yesterday, ahead of an expected announcement to recommend highly contentious restrictions on the first direct elections for the leader of the Chinese-controlled financial hub.
An article in the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) flagship newspaper, said that some people in the former British colony were colluding with outside forces to interfere in Hong Kong’s governance.
“Not only are they undermining Hong Kong’s stability and development, but they’re also attempting to turn Hong Kong into a bridgehead for subverting and infiltrating the Chinese mainland... This can absolutely not be permitted,” the article said, citing an unidentified official in the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ department for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
The article said that as a special administrative region of China, Hong Kong’s affairs are entirely a Chinese internal matter.
China would refute and make “solemn representations” in response to statements and actions by foreign forces and demand that they “cease meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs and Chinese internal political matters by any means,” the article said.
The article did not identify any individuals or groups, although the UK and the US have both been vocal about their hopes for genuine democratic reform in Hong Kong.
The warning appeared as China’s legislature was expected to announce today that an elite pro-Beijing body must vet candidates for the territory’s leader starting from 2017 — setting up a showdown with pro-democracy groups who want Hong Kongers to be able to freely nominate candidates.
Hong Kong newspapers have reported that the Chinese Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress is to recommend that voters choose from up to three candidates named by a nominating body, while the public gets no say.
That would resemble the current system under which a 1,200-member panel stacked with mostly pro-Beijing elites gets to pick the leader.
Democracy activists are threatening to respond with a mass sit-in which would paralyze the financial district that is the symbolic heart of the city. Student leaders are also considering a walkout of university classes next month.
Since being handed back from the UK in 1997, Hong Kong has retained a high degree of legal, economic and political autonomy.
However, there are growing concerns among many of the territory’s 7 million people that Beijing wishes to insert itself more strongly into Hong Kong’s affairs, particularly in ensuring that its leadership remains beholden to the CCP.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
‘VERY SHALLOW’: The center of Saturday’s quake in Tainan’s Dongshan District hit at a depth of 7.7km, while yesterday’s in Nansai was at a depth of 8.1km, the CWA said Two magnitude 5.7 earthquakes that struck on Saturday night and yesterday morning were aftershocks triggered by a magnitude 6.4 quake on Tuesday last week, a seismologist said, adding that the epicenters of the aftershocks are moving westward. Saturday and yesterday’s earthquakes occurred as people were preparing for the Lunar New Year holiday this week. As of 10am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) recorded 110 aftershocks from last week’s main earthquake, including six magnitude 5 to 6 quakes and 32 magnitude 4 to 5 tremors. Seventy-one of the earthquakes were smaller than magnitude 4. Thirty-one of the aftershocks were felt nationwide, while 79
RSS