Developments in Hong Kong and Macau
Hong Kong's current electoral system and the proposed changes
On April 14, 2010, Hong Kong Chief Secretary Henry Tang presented the government's Package of Proposals for the Methods for Selecting the Chief Executive and for Forming the Legislative Council in 2012 according to a press release issued by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Offices in the United States. Some Hong Kong citizens reportedly have grown frustrated with the pace of democratic reform. As reported in a January 27 New York Times article, "The political system in Hong Kong is increasingly paralyzed, and street protests are growing more confrontational as public dissatisfaction on economic issues and a lack of democracy is rising."
The Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) passed a new National Security Law on February 25, 2009, as it was required to do under Chapter II, Article 23 of the Basic Law of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China that was adopted in 1993 and went into effect in 1999. The new law includes provisions detailed below regarding treason (Article 1), secession (Article 2), subversion (Article 3), sedition (Article 4), theft of state secrets (Article 5), and acts by foreign political organizations or Macau groups that endanger state security (Articles 6 and 7).
Tens of thousands of protestors calling for universal suffrage marched in Hong Kong on December 4, according to a December 5 report in the Washington Post. The march was organized by opponents of the reform proposals contained in the Hong Kong Constitutional Development Task Force's Fifth Report issued in October. The report recommends doubling the size of the 800-member committee that picks Hong Kong’s chief executive, and expanding the 60-member Legislative Council (LegCo) by 10 seats.
The Hong Kong SAR's Constitutional Development Task Force issued its fifth report on October 19. The report contains a package of proposals on methods for selecting the Chief Executive in 2007 and for forming the Legislative Council (LegCo) in 2008. Among these proposals, the report calls for doubling the size of the Election Committee that chooses Hong Kong’s chief executive. The report proposes increasing the number of Election Committee members in the First, Second, and Third Sectors, which comprise professionals in industry, commerce, finance, labor, and social services, from 600 to 900. In addition, the report proposes increasing the number of members in the Fourth Sector, which comprises members of the LegCo, District Councils, Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress, and others, from 200 to 700.
The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal (CFA), in a decision announced on May 5, overturned the convictions of eight Falun Gong practitioners for willful obstruction of police and assault. Hong Kong police arrested the practitioners in 2002 for obstructing a public thoroughfare in the course of a peaceful protest outside the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government. Several demonstrators resisted police efforts to arrest them for the obstruction. In 2002, a Hong Kong trial court convicted the demonstrators of obstructing a public place, willful obstruction of police, and (in the case of one demonstrator) assault. In 2003, a lower appeals court overturned the public obstruction convictions but upheld the willful obstruction and assault convictions.
The Department of State released its annual Human Rights Report on February 28. The report contains a comprehensive 70-page section on China that includes an analysis of human rights conditions in Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau. While noting significant legal reforms and relaxed controls over migration in China, the report concludes that China’s human rights record remains poor and that the Chinese government continued to commit numerous and serious abuses of the right to free expression, due process, labor rights, freedom of assembly and religion, minority rights, and other internationally recognized human rights in 2004.