ASIA : Hong Kong Warily Eyes Treatment of Taiwan

As voters in Taiwan were celebrating their first fully democratic presidential election, residents here watched their own hopes for full democracy move a step backward.

On Sunday, the Preparatory Committee, the group charged with coordinating Hong Kong’s hand-over from Britain, decided to scrap the colony’s elected legislature and replace it with appointed lawmakers when the territory reverts to Chinese rule next year. At the meeting in Beijing, a group of handpicked Chinese and mostly pro-Beijing leaders from Hong Kong voted 148 to 1 to disband the legislature.

The lone objector--Hong Kong legislator Frederick Fung--drew fire from Lu Ping, the top Chinese official responsible for Hong Kong, who said Fung should be kicked off the Preparatory Committee and banned from the post-1997 legislature.

“This is a black day for democracy in Hong Kong,” said Chris Patten, Hong Kong’s British governor, denouncing the decision as a step backward “at a time when democracy is moving forward all over the Asian region.”

China is hoping to regain Hong Kong and Taiwan under a “one country, two systems” plan. Hong Kong is scheduled to return to Chinese sovereignty at midnight on June 30, 1997. Taiwan has said it will reunite with the mainland if China catches up to Taiwan politically and economically--a process that could take decades.

Meanwhile, residents of Hong Kong and Taiwan have been warily scrutinizing Beijing’s behavior toward the other for clues about how they would fare under Chinese rule.

In the campaign for Taiwan’s election last Saturday, China tried to spook voters by holding military exercises simulating an invasion of Taiwan. China repeatedly has declared it will take back the island, which it considers its territory, by force if Taiwan moves toward independence.

But as Beijing waged war games, three-quarters of Taiwanese voters backed either a defiant President Lee Teng-hui or a candidate who advocated outright independence.

“They strong-armed Taiwan, and they strong-armed me,” Fung said Wednesday in an interview. “This shows that China cannot accept a dissenting point of view. But it won’t stop dissent.”

Hong Kong legislators who went to Taiwan to observe the election said they hope the process will prove that democracy is not unsuitable for Asian societies, as Beijing has claimed.

“China could learn from Taiwan about how to peacefully open up,” said Lau Chin-shek, a pro-democracy legislator who just returned from Taipei. “Even the ruling Kuomintang [Nationalist Party] moved beyond bloodshed and jailing dissidents to allow universal suffrage.”

Chinese Vice Premier and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen called Hong Kong legislators’ criticisms of the Preparatory Committee and demands for the right to elect its own leader after 1997 “laughable.”

“To mechanically ape the Western democratic model does not accord with Hong Kong’s actual conditions or accommodate the interests of all social strata,” Qian said.

Rather, China’s recent treatment of Taiwan, which it considers “part of the motherland,” holds lessons for Hong Kong, observers say.

“Chinese leaders showed us that they’re not afraid to kill the goose that lays the golden egg,” said businessman Winston Wong.

Hong Kong and Taiwan are among the largest investors in the mainland. Taiwan, despite policies discouraging cross-strait trade, had invested $24 billion on the mainland by last year.

Legislator Emily Lau, an outspoken pro-democracy leader, said China’s belligerent displays should be a wake-up call for Hong Kong. “Democracy is not like manna from heaven. Taiwan has fought for it for decades, and Hong Kong has to fight for it too,” she said Wednesday after returning from Taiwan’s election. “Maybe we have to learn the hard way. But our time is coming.”