China Denies Hong Kong Direct Vote on Leader in 2012
Ruling by Standing Committee in Beijing Holds Out Hope for More Democratic Balloting in 2017 Election

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, December 29, 2007

BEIJING, Dec. 29 -- China ruled Saturday that Hong Kong cannot choose its next chief executive through direct elections but held out hopes of a more democratic vote for the following election in 2017.

The ruling, by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, or legislature, demonstrated the Communist Party's determination to maintain tight controls over Hong Kong politics for at least the near future. It continued what pro-democracy activists have complained is an overly slow pace toward the democratic reforms promised when the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

The current chief executive, Donald Tsang, said in a report to the standing committee this month that a majority of Hong Kong's 7 million residents would like to elect his replacement in 2012 through direct elections. But he added that scheduling direct elections for the next time around -- 2017 -- would stand more chance of broad acceptance, including among pro-Beijing members of the Legislative Council, who generally bend with the wind from the mainland.

In response, the standing committee said Saturday that the 2012 voting would have to remain indirect but that it would entertain the 2017 target date, according to Zhang Longshun, a committee official who briefed reporters. He said the committee also decided that the Legislative Council could be elected directly only later, perhaps in 2020.

Tsang, who has sought to cooperate carefully with Beijing, hailed the ruling as a major step forward. "Today, Hong Kong people have entered an important new stage," he said in a televised statement to reporters. "A target date for universal suffrage has now been defined. We must treasure this hard-earned opportunity."

Since Britain's departure, the chief executive has been elected to a five-year term by an 800-member committee dominated by pro-Beijing business leaders and others reluctant to challenge China's will. The last voting, in March, was preceded by an ersatz political campaign that featured rallies, position papers and debates between Tsang and challenger Alan Leong, even though Tsang's election was a certainty once Beijing had given him the nod.

Leong, of the pro-democracy Civic Party, said he mounted his challenge to keep the issue before the public and show Chinese President Hu Jintao and his lieutenants that they have nothing to fear from more democratic politics in Hong Kong. Tsang, a veteran Hong Kong civil servant, earned points with Hong Kong residents of all political persuasions by going along with the idea and treating Leong as a worthy opponent.

But the party leadership in Beijing apparently was not moved. Since the beginning, Beijing has made it clear that the Communist Party intends to go slowly. To critics, the caution reflects fear that democratic elections in Hong Kong could produce pressure for similar reforms on the mainland.

Hong Kong, which is called a special administrative region, was promised a "one-country, two systems" arrangement when Britain left in 1997. The British, who had ruled Hong Kong as a colony, bequeathed a promise that the new arrangement would include direct elections of the Legislative Council and chief executive.

Under current rules, the 60-seat council has 30 members chosen by direct voting and 30 by electors from professional and other groups. It will be renewed next in voting simultaneous with the chief executive election in 2012.

The standing committee's ruling left open the possibility than Tsang could come to Beijing with ideas on how to broaden participation in voting for the council as well as the chief executive in 2012, without allowing universal suffrage in that election, as demanded by activists in Hong Kong. The choice of the 800-member chief executive voting committee could be changed, for instance, or more council seats could be voted on directly. But Beijing's rulers made it clear they refuse for now to let the ultimate choice of Hong Kong's leaders slip out of their control.