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Taiwan's Chen says HK worse off under Beijing rule
2005-06-30
Chinese and British officials pose for a photograph. |
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TAIPEI - Taiwan's president accused Beijing on Thursday of breaking its promise to give Hong Kong autonomy after its return to Chinese rule and said such "false words" were a lesson for his self-ruled, democratic island.Chen Shui-bian, reviled by Beijing for his pro-independence stance, said there had been at least 163 cases of China violating the rights of residents in the former British colony and interfering in its judicial independence and freedom of speech. "The so-called 'one country, two systems' are empty words, false words," Chen told a group of Hong Kong-based Taiwanese business people on the eve of the eighth anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule. "In the past eight years, Hong Kong is one of the few regions in the world that has suffered serious setbacks in areas of personal freedom as well as law and order," Chen said. "The same lesson cannot, and will not, happen to Taiwan's 23 million people." The late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping sought to persuade Hong Kong of the benefits of reunification by promising to retain its free-wheeling capitalist ways for half a century after reversion to Chinese rule. He intended it to serve as a model for Taiwan's reunification with the mainland. China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since a civil war ended in 1949 and vowed to bring the island back into the fold, by force if necessary. Chen has repeatedly rejected Beijing's formula for reunification, saying the island's political future must be decided by its own people. Opposition parties such as the Kuomintang, or the Nationalist Party, which adopt a more conciliatory stance towards Beijing, also oppose the formula. "The fact that Chief Executive Donald Tsang's swearing-in ceremony took place in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing clearly indicates Hong Kong's independent identity is going from bad to worse," Chen said. Tsang was sworn in as chief executive in Beijing last Friday, replacing the unpopular Tung Chee-hwa, who quit in March citing poor health. Reuters
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