WORLD : Beijing OKs Hong Kong Law
China’s legislature gave final approval today to the basic law by which Beijing will govern Hong Kong after 1997, but Hong Kong politicians immediately demanded it be amended.
The National People’s Congress, which largely rubber-stamps decisions by top leaders, made no changes of its own in the law, which was thrashed out over the past five years by a special Chinese-Hong Kong committee.
Under the law Hong Kong, which has been ruled by Britain since 1842, is promised a high degree of autonomy within China and protection of its capitalist economic system for at least 50 years. However, many of Hong Kong’s 5.7 million residents fear that the guarantees are not strong enough.
The law provides for a 60-seat local legislature in which 20 members could be directly elected at first, 24 members in 1999 and 30 members in the year 2003. It also sets up a complicated split-voting procedure that gives appointed legislators power to veto controversial bills.
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