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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Tuesday, July 8, 2003

EDITORIAL
Hong Kong protests spell Beijing setback

Hong Kong citizens voted with their feet last week, and with impressive effect.

A half-million of them — 7 percent of the population — jammed streets July 1 to protest a draconian law due to be enacted this week.

The legislation, known as Article 23 of the Basic Law, would criminalize "treason, sedition, subversion and the theft of state secrets."

It is such laws that are used in China to put political critics in prison for long terms. The threat it presents is sure to be extremely chilling.

Until the protests, passage of the new law seemed a foregone conclusion. As late as last night, Beijing was still urging Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, to pass the measure as scheduled.

Although Hong Kongers, under the Basic Law passed after Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, cannot elect their chief executive or even a majority of their lawmakers, they have forced the government to back down simply by taking to the streets.

After one of two pro-government parties broke with Tung, it appeared pro-democracy lawmakers might hold a slight majority. Rather than risk an even more embarrassing defeat in the Legislative Council, Tung agreed to delay the bill, without saying when it might be revisited.

The enormous protest was partly because of "unemployment, salary cuts, the destruction of people's wealth through falling property prices, the slow response to the SARS outbreak and the government's inability to live up to its professed standards of accountability," said the South China Morning Post. "Underlying all the stated reasons for unhappiness will be the feeling that the government does not listen to the people."

Passage of Article 23 would badly undermine Beijing's promise of 50 years of "one country, two systems," as well as Hong Kong's status as Asia's freest place to do business. Postponing that prospect, even if only for a while, is a moral victory.