[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 147 (Wednesday, September 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S13978-S13980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SENATE RESOLUTION 175--RELATIVE TO THE RECENT ELECTIONS IN HONG KONG

  Mr. PRESSLER submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 175
       Whereas the right to a fully elected legislature in Hong 
     Kong is guaranteed by the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration 
     on the Question of Hong Kong;
       Whereas on September 17, 1995, the people of Hong Kong 
     demonstrated their commitment to democracy by freely 
     expressing their right to vote in the Legislative Council 
     elections; and
       Whereas the voters of Hong Kong have overwhelmingly 
     expressed their desire for the establishment of a fully 
     democratic government: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the people of Hong Kong are to be congratulated for 
     exercising their right to vote on September 17, 1995;
       (2) the People's Republic of China should respect the clear 
     will of the people of Hong Kong to have a fully democratic 
     government; and
       (3) the Chinese government should enter into a dialogue 
     with the democratically elected representatives of the Hong 
     Kong people.

  Mr. PRESSLER. Mr. President, when Mr. Christopher Patten became 
Governor of Hong Kong 3 years ago, he made a very important decision. 
He decided to allow the people of Hong Kong the opportunity to express 
their preference on a simple issue: Democracy--yes or no?
  As the New York Times editorial today notes, ``Hong Kong's voters 
declared overwhelmingly on Sunday their preference for democracy and 
their doubts about Beijing's plans for the colony's future.'' Final 
returns from Sunday's vote show the Democratic Party led by Mr. Martin 
Lee won the largest number of seats, 19, in the 60 seat legislative 
council. Other prodemocracy allies will give Mr. Lee a working majority 
of 31.
  By contrast, pro-Beijing candidates of the Democratic Alliance for 
the Betterment of Hong Kong won only six seats and the party's top 
three officials were all defeated. Regrettably, spokesmen for Beijing 
have not learned to lose gracefully and have resorted to threats and 
intimidation.
  Again Governor Patten has proved to be the best analyst: ``Everybody 
has to recognize that Hong Kong has expressed its views about the 
present and the future with great clarity.''
  Mr. President, I am submitting a resolution expressing the sense of 
the Congress regarding the recent elections in Hong Kong. The 
resolution congratulates the people of Hong Kong for exercising their 
right to vote, calls on China to respect the clear will of the people 
of Hong Kong to have a fully democratic government, and calls on China 
to enter into a dialogue with the democratically elected 
representatives of the Hong Kong people.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that number of articles and 
editorials from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall 
Street Journal be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:
               [From the Washington Post, Sept. 19, 1995]

   Rebuff of China Proves Sweeping--Pro-Democratic Bloc in Hong Kong 
             Legislature Could Hold Majority on Key Issues

                         (By Keith B. Richburg)

       Hong Kong, Sept. 18.--China and Hong Kong today seemed set 
     for a prolonged period of confrontation after residents here 
     gave a substantial vote of no-confidence to Beijing's 
     preferred legislative candidates, instead of choosing 
     independent-minded lawmakers who are already promising to 
     shout about human rights, free speech and the rule of law as 
     Chinese rule approaches.
       Final returns from Sunday's vote showed the Democratic 
     Party, led by lawyer Martin Lee, will be the largest single 
     party in the new legislature, with 19 of 60 seats. Counting 
     other like-minded parties and independents, advocates of 
     democracy who favor standing up to China will form a bloc of 
     at least 27.
       Published analyses indicated that on issues involving 
     relations with China, the pro-democratic vote would be a 
     majority of 31. The one clearly pro-China party won six 
     seats.
       In a victory press conference today, an elated Lee promised 
     to continue the same kind of tough rhetoric that already has 
     made him China's nemesis in the colony. Lee said the 
     elections proved that Hong Kong people ``want legislators who 
     will stand up for them'' to protect the territory's freedoms 
     in the coming battles with China's Communist leadership.
       Lee said the democracy bloc of the new legislature will use 
     the remaining 21 months of British rule to try to strengthen 
     laws protecting press freedom and free speech, to enact a 
     freedom of information ordinance, and to try again to change 
     a Sino-British agreement for a new supreme court to guarantee 
     that future judges can act with greater independence.
       Lee's statements are the sort that most unnerve mainland 
     China, and make it more likely now, in the view of some 
     analysts, that Beijing will take an even tougher stance 
     toward Hong Kong, keeping its vow to jettison the local 
     legislature and possibly even doing away with direct 
     elections entirely after reversion in July 1997.
       Pro-China politicians and official Chinese statements from 
     Beijing tried to put the best face on the election results. 
     The leader of the main pro-China party, the Democratic 
     Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong (known as DAB), 
     Tsang Yok-sing, explained the loss to reporters by saying the 
     Democrats fielded far more incumbents and had more experience 
     campaigning and organization.
       A statement from the official New China News Agency said 
     the elections ``showed that hope for a smooth transition and 
     love of the motherland and Hong Kong remain the main trend in 
     Hong Kong.'' But the agency quoted an official in Beijing of 
     the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office as repeating China's 
     vow to dismantle the legislature and replace it with a 
     provisional body whose deputies would be picked by China.

[[Page S 13979]]

       ``Beijing will feel more insecure and more suspicious 
     toward Hong Kong,'' said Joseph Cheng, a political science 
     professor at the City University here. It's likely to result 
     in ``a tougher line.''
       ``It seems the Hong Kong people want candidates who dare to 
     criticize China, to provide some checks and balances, or at 
     least to articulate their grievances,'' he said.
       But Cheng said that under the existing colonial system, 
     with most power still resting with the British governor, the 
     new lawmakers may find themselves frustrated over the next 21 
     months. The legislature may not introduce any bills that 
     would increase government spending, and the governor can 
     ignore the legislature whenever he chooses.
       Most analysts said the dismal performance of the main pro-
     China party suggested a new era of confrontation. Had more of 
     its candidates won seats, the theory goes, China might have 
     felt more comfortable about the idea of direct elections in 
     Hong Kong and less inclined to abolish the legislature when 
     it takes over.
       But many of the candidates openly aligned with China were 
     decisively beaten by the democracy advocates. The main pro-
     China party could manage no more than six seats.
       Moreover, the pro-China party's three senior officers--the 
     chairman, the vice chairman and the secretary general--all 
     were crushed. The pro-China candidates together received 
     about 30 percent of the popular vote, compared to more than 
     60 percent for the Democratic Party politicians.
       In other results, the pro-business Liberal Party, which in 
     pursuing commercial interests is likely to vote with them in 
     mind, won 10 seats. The remaining 17 seats also represent 
     interests that might shift according to the issue.
       Analysts said the loss of so many pro-China politicians, 
     considered relative moderates, means a likely dominance now 
     of more hard-line Communist voices in Hong Kong's pro-Beijing 
     United Front. The front as a whole took no part in the 
     election, even as the DAB--a part of the front--went its own 
     way on this matter and did so. This could presage a further 
     heightening of the rhetoric and increasing polarization of 
     the political dialogue, these analysts said.
       The result also means the political situation is likely to 
     become more confusing in the waning months of British 
     colonial rule. Christopher Patten, the British governor and 
     the man who engineered the changes that made the elections 
     possible, is to remain until the end of June 1997. But the 
     new legislature he helped create can claim it has the 
     legitimacy of the people, since unlike the governor, all 60 
     members were elected, directly or indirectly.
       China has said it will unveil its own ``provisional 
     legislature'' next year, and although technically it will 
     have no power until the turnover in 1997, it is foreseen as a 
     ``shadow legislature'' competing with the elected one for 
     influence. And China is also expected to name the team that 
     will run the government in Hong Kong after July 1997, meaning 
     there will also be a shadow executive and cabinet waiting in 
     the wings.
                                                                    ____


               [From the New York Times, Sept. 19, 1995]

       China and Hong Kong Victors Square Off After the Election

                         (By Edward A. Gargan)

       Hong Kong, September 18.--As jubilant members of Hong 
     Kong's Democratic Party celebrated their sweeping defeat of 
     pro-China parties in legislative elections on Sunday, Beijing 
     renewed its promise that the legislature would be disbanded 
     on July 1, 1997, the day the territory is scheduled to revert 
     to Chinese rule.
       ``The last legislature of the British administration in 
     Hong Kong will end on June 30, 1997,'' a spokesman for 
     China's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office was quoted as 
     saying today by the New China News Agency. ``The attitude of 
     the Chinese Government on this issue is consistent and will 
     not change and will not be influenced by the result of the 
     election.''
       But members of the Democratic Party, founded in the wake of 
     the 1989 Tiananmen massacre to challenge China's plans for 
     controlling Hong Kong and regarded by Beijing as a subversive 
     organization, refused to accept what appears to be the 
     inevitable demise of their careers as lawmakers.
       ``This election makes clear the will of Hong Kong,'' said 
     Martin C.M. Lee, the party's chairman who decisively regained 
     his seat in the Legislative Council. ``This election is a 
     referendum on the aspirations of the people of Hong Kong.''
       ``Hong Kong people voted with their hearts and their minds 
     for freedom and genuine democracy,'' he said. ``The 
     elections, in short, are a mandate for democratic government 
     in Hong Kong and real constitutional, legal and human rights 
     reform to ensure basic freedoms in Hong Kong after 1997.''
       Sunday's elections for the 60-seat Legislative Council, the 
     last under more than a century of British rule, marked the 
     first time that all seats were elected, whether directly or 
     indirectly.
       The Democrats took 12 of the 20 directly elected seats, and 
     secured another 7 indirectly elected seats. Another 10 to 12 
     successful candidates who ran as independents or from smaller 
     parties are regarded as allied to the Democrats, potentially 
     giving the pro-democracy bloc a majority in the new 
     legislature.
       Most surprising, commentators said, was the defeat of the 
     pro-China Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong 
     Kong. The party's top three officials were defeated and the 
     party managed to secure only six seats, all but two from 
     indirectly elected constituencies.
       ``From the Hong Kong people's point of view, the message is 
     quite clear,'' said Joseph Cheng, a professor at City 
     University of Hong Kong's Contemporary China Research Center. 
     ``The Hong Kong people always want a spokesman who can 
     criticize China and who can provide checks and balances.''
       In their monthlong campaign, the pro-China candidates 
     hammered the theme of their close relationship with the 
     Chinese Government, cautioning Hong Kong voters that their 
     interests would be best served by electing legislators who 
     could communicate well with Beijing. Many Democratic 
     candidates described that campaign as little short of 
     blackmail, a suggestion that seemed to be borne out today in 
     bitter comments by Gary Cheng Kai-nam, the No. 2 official in 
     the pro-China party.
       ``The Hong Kong people will have to pay for it,'' he said, 
     referring to the strong showing by the Democratic Party. ``We 
     warned that it would be better to see different voices.''
       Chinese companies, newspapers and the Chinese Government's 
     official presence here, the Hong Kong office of the New China 
     News Agency, were active throughout the campaign in support 
     of the Alliance. Employees in Chinese companies were 
     aggressively lobbied, left-wing unions rallied members to 
     volunteer for Alliance campaigns and the pro-China newspapers 
     daily assailed the Democrats for anti-China attitudes.
       But the poor showing by pro-China candidates has created, 
     in many people's views, new problems for China, one put 
     bluntly by Gov. Christopher Patten, the architect of the 
     elections.
       ``Everybody has to recognize the results,'' Mr. Patten said 
     at a news conference today. ``Everybody has to recognize that 
     Hong Kong has expressed its views about the present and the 
     future with great clarity.''
       Today, in one of his most forceful comments, Mr. Patten 
     challenged China today to show how the elections violated 
     either agreements reached with Britain or the territory's 
     constitution, the Basic Law.
                                                                    ____


               [From the New York Times, Sept. 19, 1995]

                     Hong Kong Votes for Democracy

       Hong Kong's voters declared overwhelmingly on Sunday their 
     preference for democracy and their doubts about Beijing's 
     plans for the colony's future. Pro-China candidates lost 
     consistently to members of the Democratic Party, which favors 
     autonomy for Hong Kong after the planned takeover by China in 
     1997.
       Ominously, China quickly threatened to dissolve the newly-
     elected Legislative Council. Perhaps even more ominously, 
     Gary Cheng Kai-nam, an official of the pro-Chinese Democratic 
     Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, said the colony's 
     six million people would ``have to pay for'' their choice. It 
     is not in the interest of either Hong Kong or China for 
     Beijing to crush Hong Kong's vibrant economy and developing 
     democracy in 1997.
       Britain is to hand Hong Kong over to Beijing's control when 
     the 99-year lease on the colony expires. The agreement 
     governing the terms of the handover was signed in 1984, at a 
     time when China seemed to be liberalizing both its economic 
     and political systems. Hong Kong's political structure then 
     was not strictly democratic, and the prospects for finding a 
     workable accommodation between the two systems seemed 
     difficult but not impossible.
       But since the Chinese crackdown on democracy demonstrations 
     in Tiananmen Square in 1989, the match has seemed 
     increasingly awkward. Hong Kong residents showed their 
     revulsion for Beijing's brutality in a one-million-strong 
     demonstration after the tanks rolled through Tiananmen 
     Square. Since then Christopher Patten, Britain's last Hong 
     Kong Governor, has sought to encourage and strengthen 
     democratic institutions. Sunday's balloting was his latest 
     move to cross the Chinese.
       If China takes a heavy-handed approach and eliminates the 
     new political institutions that Hong Kong's people clearly 
     want, it risks undermining the business confidence that makes 
     the territory such a valuable asset. Political turmoil is the 
     enemy of a flourishing economy.
       Beijing needs to take a longer view. If it wishes to 
     preserve Hong Kong's unique role as a regional financial hub, 
     it must find ways to accommodate its lively, individualistic 
     culture, flavored by its long-term and intimate relationship 
     with Western capitalism. Hong Kong's people, many of them 
     refugees from the mainland, will not be easily silenced.
                                                                    ____

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19, 1996]

     Hong Kong Voters Hand Setback To Candidates Backed by Beijing

                            (By Peter Stein)

       Hong Kong.--Voters here signaled their willingness to stand 
     up to China by giving pro-democracy candidates to the 
     territory's Legislature a landslide victory over their China-
     backed opponents.
       The magnitude of their triumph in the last Hong Kong 
     elections to be held before the British colony reverts to 
     Chinese sovereignty in mid-1997 seemed to take even the 

[[Page S 13980]]
     pro-democracy camp by surprise. Led by Chairman Martin Lee, the 
     Democratic Party won 19 out of the 25 seats they contested, 
     while allies of the Democrats secured eight more seats in the 
     60-seat Legislative Council. Before the vote, campaign staff 
     had privately anticipated the party winning about 15 seats.
       China-backed candidates fared worse than expected. The pro-
     China Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong won 
     six seats. But the party's top leadership, including Chairman 
     Tsang Yok Sing, a Marxist schoolteacher, were defeated by 
     pro-democratic candidates.
       Sunday's vote, Hong Kong's broadest exercise in democracy, 
     represented the culmination of political reforms first 
     introduced by Gov. Chris Pattern three years ago. Riled by 
     those reforms, China has already vowed to dissolve Hong 
     Kong's Legislature when it takes control of the territory 
     July 1, 1997.
       For Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp, which also swept the 
     1991 elections, the performance was a vindication of its 
     hardline approach to dealing with China. ``It has certainly 
     quelled all our doubts as to whether we enjoy the support of 
     the Hong Kong people,'' Mr. Lee said. The results signaled 
     that ``Hong Kong people love democracy, they love the rule of 
     law, they want their rights preserved.''
       Throughout the campaign, China-backed candidates attacked 
     the Democrats and their allies for their inability to enter 
     into a dialogue with Beijing. Meanwhile, the pro-democracy 
     candidates campaigned on their willingness to stand tough 
     against Beijing on issues such as preserving Hong Kong's rule 
     of law. Democrats campaigned hard against a compromise 
     agreement between China and Britain on Hong Kong's future 
     court of final appeal, which they argue will destroy the 
     independence of Hong Kong's judiciary.
       China' official Xinhua news agency, reporting on the 
     election, avoided any mention of the Democrats' victory. 
     ``The results of the Hong Kong Legislative Council elections 
     showed that hope for a smooth transition and love of the 
     motherland and Hong Kong remain the main trend in Hong 
     Kong,'' a Xinhua spokesman was quoted as saying. The 
     spokesman nonetheless branded the elections as ``unfair and 
     unreasonable.''
                                                                    ____

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19, 1995]

                               One China?

       Coming on the heels of all the recent thunder out of China, 
     the Hong Kong elections have a significance reaching far 
     beyond one island. Especially since the anti-Beijing outcome 
     is certain to be repeated in legislative elections in Taiwan 
     in December, it's time for the U.S. and other democracies to 
     review the basics of their China policy.
       The ``one China'' policy was originally set out in the 
     famous 1972 Shanghai communique. The U.S. declared that it 
     ``acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan 
     Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is 
     part of China. The United States government does not 
     challenge that position. It reaffirms its interest in a 
     peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by the Chinese 
     themselves.'' (In the same communique, China declared ``China 
     will never be a superpower and its opposes hegemony and power 
     politics of any kind.'')
       When the U.S. established diplomatic relations with Beijing 
     and suspended them with Taiwan in 1978, the joint communique 
     stated that ``the people of the United States will maintain 
     cultural, commercial and other unofficial relations with the 
     people of Taiwan.'' In a unilateral statement at the same 
     time, the U.S. declared that it ``expects that the Taiwan 
     issue will be settled peacefully by the Chinese themselves.'' 
     These understandings were codified into U.S. law by the 
     Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.
       In 1982, when the U.S. agreed to reduce arms sales to 
     Taiwan, President Reagan issued a statement that the policy 
     was based on ``the full expectation that the approach of the 
     Chinese government to the resolution of the Taiwan issue will 
     continue to be peaceful.'' He added, a ``We will not 
     interfere in this matter or prejudice the free choice of, or 
     put pressure on, the people of Taiwan in this matter.''
       These are the principles that the U.S. has followed ever 
     since Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger started the 
     rapprochement with China. They stress above all that 
     reunification should be peaceful. And they include a not-so-
     tacit premise that reunification is the desire of Chinese 
     people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, a premise that 
     looks increasingly dubious.
       To sharpen the point, throughout the history of the ``one 
     China'' policy the United States has studiously avoided any 
     suggestion that it would participate in forcing Taiwan into 
     China against the will of its people. Of course this is 
     precisely what Beijing wants when it talks of ``one China'' 
     or ``sovereignty'' or an ``internal matter.'' The course of 
     events is splitting this delicate straddle, and a yes-or-no 
     answer may impend.
       This is why China threw a tantrum over the visit to Cornell 
     by Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui, though to use a college 
     reunion looks like the unofficial relations contemplated by 
     the 1978 communique. The missile tests splashing down north 
     of Taiwan were a clumsy effort to intimidate the electorate 
     there. President Lee has been pushing for more recognition of 
     Taiwan
      in international organizations such as the World Trade 
     Organization and the International Monetary Fund. The 
     opposition party takes the position that Taiwan already is 
     an independent nation; it holds a third of the 
     parliamentary seats, and expects to gain in December.
       China's efforts at intimidation will surely backfire, as 
     they so clearly did in Hong Kong. While branded as 
     ``unpatriotic'' and ``subversive,'' Hong Kong's Democratic 
     Party carried 12 of 20 contested seats, while like-minded 
     independents took four more. Democratic leader Martin Lee got 
     80% of the votes in his own constituency, the highest margin 
     of any candidate. The main pro-Beijing grouping, the DAB, 
     captured only two seats, while its chairman and vice chairman 
     were trounced in their races. These results confounded the 
     public opinion polls, no doubt because residents did not give 
     truthful answers to callers who might be reporting to 
     Beijing.
       It's easy enough to understand why voters in Hong Kong or 
     Taiwan would have doubts about being ruled by the present 
     government of China. It's been prone to lurches such as the 
     Cultural Revolution and the post-Tiananmen crackdown. But at 
     the same time, the current Chinese leadership can rightly 
     feel that it has done much for its people over the past 
     decade, by unleashing the economy and hastening development. 
     In particular, an educated middle class has already started 
     to emerge. The shape of China's transition, internal and 
     external, will be determined by Chinese, but America and the 
     Western World can help or hurt the prospects. With the Cold 
     War over, surely there are few more important diplomatic 
     tasks than incorporating a quarter of mankind into a peaceful 
     and prosperous world system.
       What China most of all needs from the world's remaining 
     superpower is a constancy that has been sorely lacking. The 
     world would have been far better off if the Clinton 
     Administration had from the first said it would decide who 
     could visit Ithaca. China did in the end release Harry Wu, 
     after all, and has agreed to negotiate a code of conduct 
     concerning the disputed and possibly oil-rich Spratly 
     Islands. Beijing, that is, is perfectly capable of acting 
     responsibly if someone stands up and asks it to.
       The U.S. should be telling the Chinese authorities 
     something like this: That the U.S. intends to maintain its 
     historic ``one China'' policy, wishing the Han people well in 
     efforts to forge one nation, but steadfastly opposing the use 
     of force. That it's unthinkable that the U.S. would try to 
     coerce a democratic Taiwan into an unwilling union, and 
     seeking such an American commitment will be disruptive and 
     counterproductive. That with the incorporation of Hong Kong 
     in 1997, China will have an opportunity to show good faith by 
     keeping its promise of a high degree of autonomy. That 
     bringing Hong Kong to heel, destroying its institutions, is 
     the last policy likely to result in a one China.
     

                          ____________________