Tens of Thousands March for Universal Suffrage in Hong Kong

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.

Twenty-five current LegCo members have threatened to block the passage of the proposed reforms owing to frustration with the pace of democratization. Instead, the lawmakers are demanding a specific timetable for granting Hong Kong voters universal suffrage in electing the territory’s chief executive and legislature. Universal suffrage is described in Articles 45 and 68 of the Basic Law as the "ultimate aim." The National People's Congress, however, issued a decision in April 2004 prohibiting the people of Hong Kong from electing the chief executive in 2007 or the members of the LegCo in 2008 through universal suffrage. For the Constitutional Development Task Force's reform proposals to be implemented, a two-thirds majority in the LegCo must first approve them before the Hong Kong government may apply to the central government in Beijing to amend the relevant annexes of the Basic Law. A vote by the LegCo on the proposed reforms is scheduled for December 21.

The CECC expressed strong support for the provisions of the Basic Law that provide for the chief executive and the entire legislature to be elected through universal suffrage in its 2005 Annual Report.

According to a December 6 South China Morning Post (subscription required) article, mainland Chinese news media did not report on the march. Xinhua's English-language Web site, however, published one report on December 4 saying that "thousands of people took to the streets," but questioning whether the marchers and the organizers had the same political goals and implying that most Hong Kong people support stability and economic development over universal suffrage.