China Warns British Over Hong Kong Rift

China on Friday threatened British authorities in Hong Kong with “confrontation” if they press ahead with plans for democratic reforms before the colony returns to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

“We do not wish to see confrontation because it is detrimental to Hong Kong,” Lu Ping, who as director of the Chinese government’s Hong Kong-Macao Affairs Office is Beijing’s chief spokesman on the colony, said at a news conference. “But if the other side is determined to have confrontation, we cannot but have the honor of keeping it company.”

Lu said that when Beijing takes over, it will undo any democratic reforms it disapproves of.

Lu also warned that if the current British government of Hong Kong goes ahead and builds a massive new airport, making all its own decisions about the project, the post-1997 Hong Kong government will not accept any responsibilities, obligations, debts or agreements concerning the airport.

Lu’s angry words came in denunciation of Hong Kong Gov. Chris Patten, who at the end of a four-day visit here said at a news conference that he will, in some form, move forward with political reforms in the colony next year.

During his visit, China had denounced reform plans that he announced earlier this month.

Patten also declared Friday that the airport project, estimated to cost $14.5 billion or more, “will be built. . . . Hong Kong needs it and Hong Kong will get it.”

Previous governors of Hong Kong have generally been civil servants or diplomats involved with Sino-British affairs, but Patten is an influential politician from Britain’s governing Conservative Party who has no previous association with China. His populist manner and blunt speech have won him great popularity in Hong Kong, but Beijing appears angered and frightened by his style.

It was not immediately clear whether the growing confrontation between Patten and Beijing will shake confidence in Hong Kong, or whether it might possibly have the opposite effect. Many in Hong Kong have hoped for a government that would speak out more forcefully for the rights of Hong Kong people to rule their own destiny.

Beijing and London reached an agreement on the airport project last year. But since then the Chinese government has raised objections to the more detailed plans for the project, and the two sides are once again stalemated. Without Chinese backing, it is difficult for Hong Kong to arrange private-sector financing.

Many observers believe that Beijing is intentionally withholding cooperation on the airport to maintain leverage over the Hong Kong government to pressure it against democratic reforms.

The 5.8 million people of Hong Kong enjoy civil liberties including free speech, but governmental power rests in the hands of the governor, who is appointed by London. Under a 1984 agreement calling for return of the colony to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, this system is to remain essentially intact, with minor modifications. The current dispute basically is over how great those modifications may be.

Lu, at his news conference, bluntly warned that if the British authorities go beyond Beijing’s view of what is acceptable, those changes will simply be reversed as soon as China takes control. Both sides have hoped that the governmental institutions in place before July 1, 1997--the day sovereignty reverts to China--could remain in place after that day.

Many Hong Kong people who are worried that they will lose their freedom under Chinese rule want to quickly develop democratic institutions that might provide some protection. Beijing, fearful that demands for democracy might spread from Hong Kong into China after 1997, is equally determined that the system of essentially unfettered rule by a governor remain in place. Beijing will be able to appoint the governor after it resumes sovereignty.

Patten, at his news conference, expressed confidence that democratic reforms, once enacted, would be allowed to survive after 1997.

“I do not believe that it is commonly the practice to change things that work well,” he explained.