Year: 2004
Type: article
Abstract: On 1 July 2003, about 500,000 people in Hong Kong took part in a demonstration protesting against the proposed Article 23 legislation and expressing their general dissatisfaction with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government.One of the key messages in the rally was that there is a strong demand for direct election of the Chief Executive in 2007 and an increased pace of democratization of the Legislative Council in 2008.'On 23 November 2003, about 1,060,000 voters, which was a record high turnout rate, voted in the District Council election.In response, the HKSAR Government promised to review the political system in 2007 and 2008 and to publish a consultation paper in early 2004.On 5 December 2003, the New China News Agency published a rather high profile interview with four influential Mainland scholars on their views on political reform in Hong Kong, warning that political reform in Hong Kong was not a matter entirely for Hong Kong and that the Central Government had a crucial role to play.'Shortly thereafter, both the United Kingdom and the United States urged for the introduction of full democracy in Hong Kong.'Not surprisingly, this attracted the usual rebuke from the People's Republic of China (PRC) Ministry of Foreign Affairs that political reform in Hong Kong was an internal matter and that foreign governments had no right to interfere with the internal affairs of the PRC. 4 On 1 January 2004, 100,000 people took part in a demonstration reinforcing the demand for an increased pace of democratization.On 7 January 2004, the Chief Executive, in his Policy Address, stated that the Government would actively promote constitutional development in Hong Kong on the basis of maintaining "One Country, Two Systems" and adheringIn 2004, the Legislative Council will comprise 30 seats of directly elected members by adult universal franchise, and 30 seats returned by functional constituencies election.There are a wide variety of election methods among different functional constituencies.Article 68 of the Basic Law provides that the ultimate aim is the election of all the members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage.2 See Ming Pao, 5 Dec 2003, p A19.For a response, see A. Chen, " Political Reform brings out the grey area in the mechanism for triggering political reform: the Mainland Scholars clarified the right of participation of the Central Government", Ming Pao, 6 Dec 2003, p A4; J.
Author: Joseph M. Chan
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Institutes of Health
OpenAlex ID: W18794300