September 9, 2004

By AFP

China has created a “toxic political climate” in Hong Kong through threats and intimidation designed to skew Sunday’s elections in favour of pro-Beijing candidates, a global rights watchdog said.

Human Rights Watch in a report condemned Beijing for trying to coerce the media, candidates, lawmakers and voters against supporting a pro-democracy movement here that leaders view as hostile to the communist regime.

As a result, Hong Kong’s political community had been plunged into a state of fear unparalleled since sovereignty of the city returned to China from Britain in 1997, the New York-based monitor said.

The rights watchdog said there had been “a marked decline in the human rights situation in Hong Kong and that the toxic political climate created by Beijing’s patriotism campaign has increasingly become the backdrop to threats of violence.”

“The past 12 months have seen some of the most worrying violations of human rights since the 1997 handover,” the report said. “The events of the past year, taken together, constitute a step backward for human rights in Hong Kong.”

The report comes as the territory prepares to go to the polls on Sunday to elect representatives to the Legislative Council, Hong Kong’s legislature.

Pro-democracy candidates are expected to win up to 28 of the 60 seats, 30 of which are directly elected while the rest are chosen to represent so-called functional constituencies drawn from industry and union sectors.

Hong Kong’s government dismissed the report, saying that it would not allow anything to compromise the freedoms enjoyed by its citizens.

“The report by Human Rights Watch paints a distorted picture of the situation in Hong Kong, which remains one of the world’s freest societies,” it said in a statement.

Freedoms of speech, of the press, of assembly, of demonstration and in many other areas were protected by the Basic Law, the city’s mini constitution, and an independent judiciary, the government added.

“Anyone who visits Hong Kong will be able to see for themselves that we exercise these freedoms on a daily basis,” it said.

However, Human Rights Watch spokeswoman Minky Worden, who is in Hong Kong to unofficially observe the elections, said China was breaking promises it had made at the handover to protect Hong Kong’s freedoms.

“It is normal that there should be international attention because China made solemn promises to the world that it would protect human rights … but Beijing is not living up to its word.”

The report, titled “A Question of Patriotism”, catalogues a litany of offences carried out against 20 people, mostly by local thugs, allegedly on the orders of mainland officials.

Among the most worrying incidents were the resignations in quick succession of three outspoken radio talkshow hosts who claimed they had been threatened over their on-air attacks on the Beijing-backed Hong Kong government.

The report also details intimidation of politicians including pro-democracy candidate Alex Ho, who was jailed in China for hiring a prostitute, and lawmakers Emily Lau and Leung Yiu-chung, whose offices were vandalised.

Worden said that the events of the past year had undermined human rights in Hong Kong by eroding expectations that such attacks would be punished.

“The future of human rights in Hong Kong very closely linked to the future of human rights in China — it is the bellwether of what we can expect in China,” Worden said.

But Hong Kong’s government said any illegal activities threatening freedoms in the city would be pursued “vigorously” by law enforcement agencies.

Police were investigating the claims involving the radio hosts and a number of vandalism cases, it added.

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