Democracy comes calling

IN BYGONE DECADES, the Chinese city of Canton hosted trade fairs that gave outsiders a peek into a country that businesspeople hoped would make them rich. Canton now is called Guangdong, and this weekend it hosted visitors of a far different sort: democracy activists from nearby Hong Kong who hope Beijing will live up to its pledge to match political liberalization to its stunning economic progress.

The two dozen pro-democracy campaigners belong to the 60-member Hong Kong legislature. All 60 were invited to Guangdong province for the standard tour of factories, special economic zones and banquets. Giving the tour greater significance was the inclusion of 12 lawmakers whom China had previously barred for taking part in demonstrations against the massacre of protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Beijing took control of Hong Kong from the British in 1997. Many residents feared the handover would erode the former colony’s freedom. But the Beijing-anointed chief executive of Hong Kong, Donald Tsang, said last week that freedom is “totally nonnegotiable.” Tsang said he thought Beijing’s leaders were becoming “increasingly enlightened” about Hong Kong and he hoped the legislators’ visit would be just their first journey to the mainland.

Beijing would do well to invite the lawmakers to the capital in the future, not limiting them to Guangdong. Even better would be instituting a one-person, one-vote system for Hong Kong elections; currently, half the candidates are put up by constituencies such as business owners or professional groups, so most of them end up being pro-Beijing. Tsang, a sophisticated longtime civil servant under the British, said last week he had even looked at California’s initiative process as a way of making Hong Kong more democratic.

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy legislators are hobbled by divisions; demonstrations on the anniversary of the Tiananmen suppression drew fewer people this year than last. But Beijing allows no such demonstrations at all on the mainland, and many of those arrested 16 years ago remain imprisoned.

Hong Kong could be a beacon for mainland Chinese, who suffer under one-party rule, censored Internet sites and a bar on independent political groups. It’s unclear how long Beijing can keep its tight control. Loosening the reins on the mainland and letting Hong Kong experience universal suffrage need not bring instability; it could provide a transition to the social and political liberalization the country deserves.