HONG KONG-U.S.: Democratic Leader’s Visit Puts White House on the Spot

By Jim Lobe and Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Apr 16 1997 (IPS) - Hong Kong Democratic Party leader Martin Lee’s hastily arranged meeting later this week with U.S. President Bill Clinton comes at a critical moment in Sino-U.S. relations.

The meeting, which Clinton had originally intended to avoid, is designed to send a clear message to the People’s Republic of China to respect Hong Kong’s burgeoning democracy when the British colony reverts to Chinese rule Jul. 1, according to Lee, the leader of Hong Kong’s largest party.

“The White House decision says that the U.S. president, who is himself democratically elected, has the time to meet with the leader of the legislature of a democratic country, albeit a small one,” Lee told IPS here Tuesday.

But it also risks highlighting U.S. China policy at precisely the moment when a coalition of rightwing Republicans and liberal human rights activists is gearing up for a new assault on China’s “most-favoured-nation” (MFN) trade status which Clinton intends to renew next month.

Critics of the administration’s “comprehensive engagement” policy are on a roll in Washington, fuelled as they are by China’s crackdown against human rights activists, Beijing’s steps to reduce democratic freedoms in Hong Kong, and charges that China orchestrated possibly illegal contributions to Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign.

“A broad backlash against China is in full swing,” the influential ‘Business Week’ magazine noted this week.

Although Lee hopes to rally the administration to a vigorous defence of Hong Kong’s democratic institutions, he opposes any move to rescind China’s MFN status which, he says, would be a serious blow to the colony’s prosperity.

“Hong Kong would be hit first and badly hurt,” if MFN is not renewed, he said, adding that recent actions by China is “making it very difficult for us…who support the renewal of MFN.”

Lee, as well as the administration, is deeply worried by steps already taken by Beijing suggesting it will be far less tolerant of democratic practices and dissent than were the British authorities of recent years.

China will, for example, scrap the current Legislative Council (Legco), in which Lee is the dominant leader, and replace it with the Provisional Legislature, an appointed body under the control of its hand-picked Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa. The Provisional Legislature has already begun passing laws, including one that weakens a Hong Kong Bill of Rights drafted after Beijing’s crackdown against democracy activists in 1989.

Tung, who is expected to visit Washington — and possibly also meet with Clinton — next month, announced just last week that strict limits will be imposed on public protests while political parties and other kinds of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) must register with the government. Under the proposed law, political parties would also be prohibited from receiving foreign funding.

These announcements have been denounced by Lee and others, including Hong Kong’s British Governor, Chris Patten, who argued in the New York Times Monday that they represented “one of the first real tests of Hong Kong’s promised autonomy,” guaranteed under the Sino-British Agreement of 1984. It was under that accord that London agreed to hand over Hong Kong to Chinese rule by midnight, Jul. 1.

“Democrats will be the first target,” according to Andrew Cheng, another Democratic Party lawmaker who is travelling with Lee. “We will be restricted in the freedom of our movement and freedom of our speech.”

But the U.S. administration, which has been reluctant to give ammunition to its critics, has until now been low key in its public pronouncements on Hong Kong.

Asked in a Jan. 29 press conference whether a Chinese clampdown against civil liberties in Hong Kong would harm Sino-U.S. ties, Clinton replied blandly, “Well, it wouldn’t help anything.” He went on to argue that any restriction of political liberties in Hong Kong risked hurting the territory’s economy, thus making it “less useful to China.”

This more laid-back approach to Hong Kong’s future was also reflected in the decision by Vice President Gore to bypass the colony when he travelled to China last month. He was the highest U.S. official to travel to Beijing since the Tienanmen crackdown which plunged U.S.-China ties to their lowest level since normalisation almost 20 years ago.

“It was sad that Al Gore did not go to Hong Kong,” Lee told IPS here Tuesday. “It sent the wrong message to the people of China and of Hong Kong that the United States did not care.”

Gore’s decision to avoid Hong Kong proved costly politically when Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, travelled to both Beijing and Hong Kong a week later. Gingrich’s outspoken defence of democratic liberties in both cities won him plaudits from editorial writers back home who contrasted his performance with Gore’s more tepid behaviour.

Gingrich has since suggested that MFN for China should be approved only for six months to allow Congress to review the situation in Hong Kong several months after China takes over.

The administration may have taken the hint and appears to be using Lee’s presence here as a way to demonstrate that it is not “kowtowing” to Beijing as its critics charge. Originally, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright — with whom he met Monday — was the most senior official on Lee’s itinerary.

That changed Monday when the White House announced that Gore will meet with Lee later this week. During that meeting, according to spokesman Mike McCurry, Clinton is expected to “drop by,” a White House diplomatic expression suggesting less than a formal get-together and more than a simple hello in the hallway. Previous recipients of such presidential encounters include the Dalai Lama, another of Beijing’s betes noires.

If this message is not strong enough, the administration is taking other measures to convey its interest in Hong Kong’s political future. In a major policy address to the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland Tuesday night, Albright announced that she will attend the Hong Kong reversion ceremony in July.

“By so doing,” she said, “I will underline American support for the continuation of Hong Kong’s current way of life and freedoms.” She noted that 40,000 U.S. citizens currently live in the colony and that U.S. companies and individuals have 13 billion dollars invested there. “Advancing these interests depends on the rule of law and protection of civil liberties in Hong Kong,” she warned.