China accuses Britain of creating Hong Kong dissent

A top Chinese official accused Britain of introducing democracy near the end of its rule in Hong Kong to deliberately stir up conflict with Beijing and preserve its interests in the territory.

“Western colonists are used to speeding-up Western-style democracy to provoke political conflict and to polarise society after leaving the place,” said Wang Rudeng, assistant to the director of China’s representative office in Hong Kong.

“During such chaos, they can nurture their agents to maintain their influence as a sovereign power, so that they can keep their hands on it,” Wang said.

The British Consulate-General was not immediately available to comment.

Britain introduced democratic reforms in Hong Kong toward the end of its rule. The last 60-member colonial legislature had just 20 elected seats.

After Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Beijing replaced the part-elected legislature with a temporary body stacked with its allies.

But since then, Beijing has gradually allowed the general public to elect more seats. In the last general election, 24 of 60 seats were chosen by the public while the rest were picked by special interest groups. In September elections, the population will select 30.

Hong Kong’s unpopular current leader, Tung Chee-hwa, was chosen by an 800 member committee that tends to side with Beijing.

Hong Kong’s mini-constitution sets full democracy as an eventual goal, but calls for gradual reform and provides no timetable. Beijing says a rush to democracy will endanger stability and economic growth, despite calls for speedy reform from a sizeable pro-democracy lobby.

Earlier this month, China refused to allow direct elections for Hong Kong’s leader in 2007 and the territory’s entire legislature in 2008 – a move that quashed popular hopes for democratic reform and drew condemnation from both the United States and Britain.