Freedom and democracy have disappeared from Hong Kong, Taiwan’s prime minister said today, as Chinese President Xi Jinping is in the former British colony to mark the 25th anniversary of the metropolis’ return to Chinese rule.
“One only has to look at the suffering of Hong Kong people to know whether Hong Kong is doing better or worse,” Taiwanese Prime Minister Su Cheng-chang told reporters in Taiwan.
“It’s only been 25 years and in the past the promise was 50 years without change,” he added, referring to Beijing’s promise that Hong Kong can maintain its freedoms until 2047.
The pledge that “‘the dance will continue and the horses will continue to run’ is gone, even freedom and democracy are gone,” he said, borrowing a statement from former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping who had promised residents of the metropolis that nothing will change after its transition to Chinese rule.
Xi Jinping was in Hong Kong today to praise Beijing’s rule in the city, asserting that there continues to be “real democracy” there after the 1997 transition.
The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan but considers the island part of its territory and has vowed to take it back one day, even by force if necessary. It has proposed to Taiwan the principle of “one country, two systems” of governance, similar to that which, in theory, guarantees Hong Kong a certain autonomy and preservation of freedoms.
That proposal has been largely rejected across the political spectrum in Taiwan, a position reinforced by the blows to Hong Kong’s freedoms in recent decades. Su urged Taiwan to stand firm on its sovereignty, its freedoms and its democracy.” “China’s ‘one country, two systems’ principle simply has not stood the test of time,” he said.
SOURCE: APE-ME
Source: Capital
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