HONG KONG

Chinese Object to Budget Plan: The Chinese government last week turned up the heat on Britain’s colonial rulers in Hong Kong when a senior official objected to the government’s proposed budget. Lu Ping, director of Beijing’s Office of Hong Kong and Macao Affairs, said in Guangzhou that Financial Secretary Hamish MacLeod’s budget violated a stipulation in the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s post-1997 constitution, that government spending should be kept within the limits of the revenue it raised. He said it appeared that the Hong Kong government had first determined its expenditure needs and then sought ways of finding the revenue to fund it. Hong Kong officials said the budget was not in conflict with the Basic Law and that even if it were it was of no concern of the Chinese government.