HKSAR Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen mounted the special plane to welcome Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

HKSAR Chief Executive-elect Leung Chun-ying and a group of high- ranking officials were also present at the airport to greet Hu.

Upon his arrival at the Hong Kong International Airport, Hu said he hoped to witness the city’s latest development and progress and have a better understanding of the citizens’ life and expectations.

Hu said the central government is willing to work with the Hong Kong people from all walks of life to draw up the “precious experiences” in carrying out the “one country, two systems” policy over the past 15 years for further development.

Despite Hu’s call for unity in his airport speech, he arrives at a time of strain between Hong Kong and the mainland. For BBC News, Juliana Liu reports that an independent poll shows that the Hong Kong public’s mistrust of the Chinese government stands at a post handover high. The Financial Times’ Enid Tsui writes that Hu’s arrival is arousing mixed reactions:

Local officials, business tycoons and pro-Beijing politicians have literally painted the town red to mark the occasion. But tens of thousands of ordinary citizens plan to welcome the Chinese leader by taking to the streets in protest.

The July 1 anniversary has traditionally been the biggest day for protests in Hong Kong since the handover, and turnout this year is expected to be bigger than usual.

Protesters are calling for the resignation of Leung Chun-ying, who is scheduled to be inaugurated as Hong Kong chief executive on Sunday, over concerns that he misled the public about several illegal structures at his home.

However, the main target is the Chinese Communist party, which they believe is undermining the “one-country, two-system” framework that Britain and China agreed before the handover to ensure Hong Kong retained a high degree of autonomy.

Hu will also oversee the swearing-in of Leung Chun-ying, who in March won a campaign marked by scandals and protest and who faces a number of issues as he takes office. Reuters reports that for Leung, who has given inconsistent explanations for a series of illegal housing structures in his Victoria Peak villa, the honeymoon is over before it’s begun:

China had been hoping for a smooth transition of power from outgoing Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang to his Beijing-backed successor, Leung Chun-ying, but a series of scandals that has infuriated the public, and undermined the government’s reputation as clean and honest, makes that unlikely.

“He (Leung) will have a very difficult, if not turbulent, one or two years,” said political analyst Willy Lam. “The honeymoon has gone before he’s even started.”

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Journalists have alleged that police at the scene unnecessarily used pepper spray against reporters covering the march. The Hong Kong Journalists’ Association chairwoman, Mak Yin-ting, complained in a letter sent to Police Commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung, news reports said, that police used pepper spray against at least 19 journalists, including three reporters who were sprayed directly in the face and eyes. The journalists’ group is demanding a police investigation. “At a time when freedom of speech and assembly and the rights of a free press are under serious attack by Chinese security forces just over the border, it’s essential for the Hong Kong government to demonstrate a strong commitment to the defense of those same rights and freedoms in Hong Kong,” [Human Rights Watch's Asia advocacy director, Sophie] Richardson said ….

Human rights lawyers and civil society activists in Hong Kong have in recent years expressed increasing concern about a perceived lower official tolerance for dissent in the territory. Such concerns have been exacerbated by Hong Kong immigration authorities’ denial of entry to high-profile critics of China’s human rights record including the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protest leader Wang Dan. In its most recent annual report, released on July 11, the Hong Kong Journalists Association noted that “The trend for the government, and in particular the police, to take a harsher line against protesters has continued in [2011].”

The Economist puts the July 1st protest in context:

On July 1st 2003 half a million people took to the streets of Hong Kong, forced the government to give up on a reviled law and ended the career of the territory’s chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa. This is not a Tung Chee-hwa moment, but the kettle is boiling again. On July 1st throngs of angry Hong Kong people rallied between Victoria Park and the government buildings in Central—more than 200,000, according to organisers—shouting, singing, whistling and waving banners demanding democratic rights, great and small. It was the largest popular demonstration on Chinese territory in several years. The people of Hong Kong, so often quiescent, are angry again: at their local government and at meddling by the national authorities in faraway Beijing.

On the next business day, July 4th, the government blinked, postponing a controversial revision to Hong Kong’s electoral law, which would have banned by-elections for vacated seats in the Legislative Council (Legco). The government had wanted to do this to prevent its opponents from repeating a stunt from last year, when they engineered by-elections to improvise a kind of straw poll on democracy itself ….

The delay may cool passions, but not for long. The underlying issue of suffrage in Hong Kong is becoming more divisive as the tenure of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the current chief executive, draws to a close. This July marks the start of Mr Tsang’s last year in office. In 2012 a carefully selected committee of 1,200 members—0.017% of the population—will choose his replacement.

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Clever divide-and-rule tactics by Beijing have split the pro-democracy camp in Hong Kong and assured passage of what passes for political reform in the territory. The now-certain passage of the electoral changes, which only marginally enlarge the franchise, represents a victory for chief executive Donald Tsang, who has devoted massive government resources to trying to drum up popular backing for the proposals.

It is doubtful that Tsang had much success with the populace — and even less when he appeared in a debate on the subject with Audrey Eu, who leads the Civic Party which continues to reject the proposal. Even Tsang himself acknowledges he was trounced.

But the barrage of propaganda was effective with the current leadership of the Democratic Party, the largest and oldest of the pro-democracy groups, who felt that a little progress was better than nothing. The new reform package is only a little more democratic than ones rejected by the legislature in 2005. Although pro-government members, mostly drawn from business groups, are in the majority in the legislature, any constitutional changes require a two thirds majority. In 2005 the pro-democracy groups were united in rejecting the reform as totally inadequate.

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Hong Kong will suspend classes at all primary schools, kindergartens and childcare centers for 14 days starting tomorrow after a confirmed cluster of swine flu cases, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said.

[..]Tsang said that 12 pupils at a secondary school were confirmed to have contracted H1N1 influenza. Classes at that school have also been halted for at least 14 days. Hong Kong confirmed its first locally contracted case in a 55-year-old man yesterday. The Lovells LLP employee had gone to a cocktail party organized by the international law firm that was attended by someone with swine flu.

[...]Eleven of the new cases were classmates of a 16-year-old girl at the secondary school who tested positive for swine flu yesterday. Together with three more imported cases, they brought the number of human swine flu cases in the city to 63, according to a statement posted on the government’s Web site today.

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From South China Morning Post (pay site):

The row erupted at a question-and-answer session after Mr Tsang sidestepped a request by the Civic Party’s Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee to back the public’s demand for vindication of students killed in the crackdown.

“I understand Hong Kong people’s feelings about June 4, but the incident happened many years ago. The country’s development in many areas has since achieved tremendous results and brought economic prosperity to Hong Kong. I believe Hong Kong people will make an objective assessment of the nation’s development.”

Ms Ng asked: “Are you saying that as long as the economy is developing well we cannot admit people were killed? Should we bury our conscience to share economic benefits?”

Mr Tsang replied: “My view represents the opinion of Hong Kong people in general, and the opinion of citizens has affected my view. What I have just said is how I feel about the views of the people of Hong Kong.”

Some statistics on actual views towards June 4th from HKU POP, via EastSouthWestNorth:

Do you think the Beijing students did the right thing in the June 4th incident?
50.1%: Right
15.0%: Wrong
34.9%: Don’t know/hard to say

Do you think the Chinese government did the right thing in the June 4th incident?
14.9%: Right
58.0%: Wrong
27.1%: Don’t know/hard to say

Compared to 1989, do you think China’s human right condition has become better or worse?
85.4%: Better
9.0%: Same
2.4%: Worse
3.2%: Don’t know/hard to say

Do you think the human right condition in China will be better or even worse in three years’ time?
77.2%: Better
12.1%: Same
1.9%: Worse
8.9%: Don’t know/hard to say

From The Standard:

About 20 pan-democratic lawmakers stormed out of the Legislative Council chamber yesterday after Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said his views on the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 represented those of the community.

He later apologized for the wrong choice of words.

[...] “You are raping public opinion. Human blood is not rouge,” the League of Social Democrats’ Leung Kwok-hung shouted.

“How can he represent me? I want the chief executive to withdraw his remark,” unionist Lee Cheuk-yan added. Cheung Man-kwong of the Democratic Party demanded a clarification.

Anger online is being expressed in a number of ways. The Facebook group “曾蔭權 你對六四的看法 唔能夠代表香港人的意見! 請你道歉!/Donald Tsang Your View on 64 is NOT my view” currently has 4,780 members and growing. Another response to Tsang’s words is the song, “Donald Tsang, Please Die,” by Hong Kong indie pop band My Little Airport. Lyrics and music by P (阿p):

Lyrics:

Donald Tsang, please die
我哋實上街
Donald Tsang, please die
When will you be fired?

假設donald今日你俾人斬左隻手
二十年後嗰個人發咗達又做埋特首
你會否因為佢嘅成就
然後叫自己不要追究？

Donald Tsang, please die
我哋實上街
Donald Tsang, please die
We’re all poor guys

董建華雖然做野係渣
但係良心都唔會好似你咁差
你任內最驕人既成就
就係強化市民對民主嘅要求

Donald Tsang, please die
When will you die?
Donald Tsang, please die…
When will you be fired?

© Paulina Hartono for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Donald Tsang has apologised for suggesting that China’s Cultural Revolution was an extreme form of democracy.

Mr Tsang came under fire for citing the Cultural Revolution to argue that social stability should not be sacrificed for democratic development. The Cultural Revolution was an extreme example of people taking power into their own hands, he told RTHK radio. A statement from Mr Tsang said he would like to retract his comments. [Full Text]

[Image: Mr Tsang said he was "very sorry" for the "inappropriate" remarks, from AFP.]

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It may be that your ultimate working nightmare would be to have two tough bosses. I mean, one tough boss alone you can handle — just keep that one account squared away and don’t mess up.

Having even a string of bosses is not so big a deal — just juggle one against the other against the third and so on, then keep your head down.

But serving two masters, and two masters alone, who are watching you like hawks, and who often disagree — that’s got to go down as one of life’s major headaches. It’s certainly not the kind of job I would want.

But that’s the kind of job Chief Executive Donald Tsang has. I don’t envy him. He’s soon to commence his second term in the service of a pair of competing masters. One is Hong Kong — meaning the territory’s people, evolving legislature and punchy news media. The other is Master Beijing. [Full Text]

Tom Plate is a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network. Read also the edited transcript of Financial Times’ interview with Donald Tsang:

(...)
Read the rest of Hong Kong’s Boss Looks Forward And Back – Tom Plate (495 words)

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A leading pro-Beijing figure, Tsang Tak-sing, has been appointed to the Hong Kong government in a new cabinet announced on Saturday.

The new government will be sworn in on 1 July, when Hong Kong will mark 10 years since its handover from British to Chinese rule.

The new cabinet also promotes two men seen as competing to succeed its Chief Executive, Donald Tsang. [Full Text]

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Although Hong Kong Chief Donald Tsang (ÊõæËî≠ʨä) easily defeated his opponent according to Sunday’s poll, the election was nothing more than a farce.

As previously expected, Tsang, with Beijing’s blessing, comfortably beat pro-democracy lawmaker Alan Leong (Ê¢ÅÂÆ∂ÂÇë) by winning 649 votes from the 800-member election committee, comprised of tycoons and elites. Tsang was reelected as the second chief executive of Hong Kong since the former British colony was returned to China in 1997. [Full Text]

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Hong Kong, often seen as a bellwether for democracy’s prospects in China, opened a potentially decisive chapter in its history Sunday, as the winner of elections to the territory’s top job pledged new steps to open up the territory’s backroom politics.

Winning Sunday’s elections for Hong Kong’s chief executive was the easy part for Donald Tsang, Beijing’s anointed candidate, who trounced his pro-democracy opponent in the elite committee that chooses the city’s top official.

Now he will have to navigate the choppy waters between the citizens he rules and represents in Hong Kong, who overwhelmingly want democratic elections for his job in five years, and his political masters in Beijing, who are wary of free votes.[Full Text]

- See also Asia Sentinel’s look at the Hong Kong media’s reaction to the elections:

(...)
Read the rest of Hong Kong’s New Chief Faces Renewed Pressure for Universal Vote – Peter Ford (97 words)

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Donald Tsang easily won re-election to another five-year term as Hong Kong’s chief executive Sunday in voting restricted to a Chinese-approved electoral body.

Tsang defeated his challenger, Alan Leong, with 649 out of the 772 valid votes cast by the business and professional leaders who make up what Leong and his supporters denounced as a “closed circle” of electors during several weeks of electioneering. [Full text]

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© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2007. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Hong Kong’s chief executive Donald Tsang has announced he is seeking a second term in office.

The widely-expected declaration was accompanied by a pledge of tax cuts and greater infrastructure spending.Mr Tsang has also agreed to an unprecedented public debate with challenger and pro-democracy activist Alan Leong.

A mostly pro-Beijing, 800-member panel will make the selection in March.It is the first time a Hong Kong leader has faced an opponent since the former British colony reunited with China 10 years ago. China has given Tsang its clear backing, meaning his return is all but assured.[Full Text]

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The only declared candidate in the race to become Hong Kong’s next chief executive has identified the territory’s conservative business ¬≠community as the primary obstacle to democratic reform and says his long-shot candidacy will “expose the absurdity of [Hong Kong's electoral] system”.

“The main obstacle in the way of universal suffrage in Hong Kong is really the business community,” Alan Leong, a barrister and legislator, said in an interview with the Financial Times. “I really believe that it is this chorus of business people singing against universal suffrage that explains Beijing’s reluctance to introduce it in Hong Kong.”

“But behind closed doors, quite a few [businessmen] agree with me that if you want a system that can protect their sons and grandsons, you need democracy and the rule of law.”[Full Text]

Also read Chan rules out a challenge to HK chief

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The most popular potential rival to Hong Kong’s chief executive has formally ruled out challenging the incumbent in an election next year, leaving the territory’s pro-democracy camp without an obvious opposition candidate.

Anson Chan, who served as the government’s second highest ranking official from 1993 until her retirement in 2001, formally announced at the weekend that she would not challenge chief executive Donald Tsang, who is expected to seek re-election to a five-year term in March.

While Mr Tsang’s re-appointment by an 800-member election committee will be a formality, Ms Chan’s withdrawal could spare him a hard-fought battle in the court of public opinion. Potential candidates with Ms Chan’s stature, experience and popularity are thin on the ground in Hong Kong.[Full Text]

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