Tough Controls on Protests Unveiled for Hong Kong

Rushing to be ready for the return to Chinese rule, Hong Kong’s future government formally unveiled proposals Wednesday to tighten controls on public protests and foreign support of local political parties after the July 1 hand-over.

Hong Kong’s incoming government created the draft legislation, which will be enacted one minute after midnight July 1, in response to a February edict by China’s parliament that Hong Kong’s liberal laws needed changing to ensure social stability.

Under the proposed changes, groups would be required to get police approval a week in advance to hold demonstrations involving more than 30 people and 48 hours before smaller gatherings, a move meant to curb massive or impromptu protests that could disturb the peace--or, critics maintain, irritate the new leaders.

Political parties also could be outlawed on grounds of “national security, public safety, public order, protection of public health or morals, and protection of the rights and freedom of others.”

Pro-democracy groups immediately slammed the proposals as “a denial of civil liberties” and vowed to sue the shadow administration if it begins formal legislation before taking power on July 1 under a leader handpicked by Beijing, shipping tycoon Tung Chee-hwa.

“This is a signal to the people in Hong Kong and the international community that the [incoming] government has a confidence problem in maintaining peace and order here,” said Albert Ho, spokesman for the Democratic Party.

Critics particularly object to the inclusion of “national security” in the prohibitions; the phrase is used in China to stifle dissent.

“It’s taking a step back,” said Nihal Jaywickrama, associate law professor at Hong Kong University. He said the changes would take Hong Kong’s democratic development back to the beginning of the decade, when the British government still had broad powers to stifle its critics and curb the Communist Party in the colony.

The proposals were presented Wednesday by Michael Suen, Tung’s new policy aide, who embodies the awkwardness of Hong Kong’s transition from British to Chinese rule. Suen, 57, was a member of current Gov. Chris Patten’s Cabinet and a vocal critic of China’s directive to tighten controls. Then last month he was transferred to Tung’s office to help the incoming leader prepare for the hand-over.

On Wednesday, Suen had to defend the changes that, in February, he had deemed “unnecessary” and had said would undermine Hong Kong’s confidence and provoke legal challenges after the hand-over.

“We must strike a balance between civil liberties and social stability . . . between personal rights and social obligations,” he said to a crowded news conference Wednesday. “It is easy to forget that being a small and open economy, Hong Kong is extremely vulnerable to external forces.”

The proposals come two months after China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, voted to scrap a clutch of civil rights laws introduced by Patten since 1992, saying they contravened the incoming constitution. Tung’s office has invited public feedback until April 30, when the Provisional Legislature will start preparing to enact the new laws the day after the hand-over.

Patten said Wednesday that there is no need to change existing laws and characterized the consultation process as an important test for the new government. “If the consultation demonstrates that people don’t want a change in these fundamental freedoms,” Patten said at a news conference, “can we be assured that the point will be put very clearly on behalf of Hong Kong to the authorities in Beijing?”

The new legislation appears aimed at pro-democracy groups, who regularly hold noisy, traffic-snarling marches that often end outside the Chinese government’s de facto embassy here, the New China News Agency.

The Democratic Party--the political group with the most seats in the Legislative Council, the legislature under British rule--fears it will be hurt by the proposed ban on donations from foreign organizations or individuals, which includes residents of Taiwan and Taiwanese-based organizations.

The party announced this week that it had raised nearly $300,000 during an 18-day fund-raising tour of the United States.