China rejects HK protest call
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- China has bluntly ruled out any immediate moves towards greater democracy in Hong Kong and warned that those pressing for what was "unachievable" were being "unwise."
Beijing's reaction follows Thursday's massive protest in the territory when hundreds of thousands of protesters endured sweltering heat to stage a massive, peaceful pro-democracy rally.
Organizers said 530,000 people turned up for the march, but police estimates put the figure at 200,000.
Hong Kong democracy activists used the protest to demand China's communist leaders take note of their calls for faster democratic reforms, including campaigning to have the city's leader elected directly in 2007, when a new chief executive is due.
But a Beijing representative said there would be no change to an earlier decision by China's National People's Congress that ruled that out.
"On the issue of direct elections in 2007/08, the decision made by the National People's Congress is final," Li Gang, deputy director of China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong told a city cable TV network on Saturday.
"It is unwise to try to achieve what is unachievable. Such demands are against the current atmosphere of dialogue and communication in the society," Li said.
Beijing pledges Hong Kong was given a high degree of autonomy when it was handed over to China in 1997 under the "one country, two systems" formula after 150 years of British rule.
Beijing pledged to keep the special administrative region's capitalist systems and way of life "unchanged" for 50 years, and the territory's mini-constitution in theory allowed for direct elections in the territory as soon as 2007.
But concerned that calls for democracy will spill over to mainland China and worried it may lose control over the territory, Beijing has been cracking down on the law ahead of legislative elections in September.
In April, Beijing ruled out universal suffrage and the election of a chief executive over the near term and at the same time called pro-democracy activists "unpatriotic."
Those moves have infuriated residents who have turned a public holiday meant to celebrate a return to Chinese hands into a day to vent their frustration at Beijing rule.
Last year, half a million took to the streets on July 1, protesting against a controversial anti-subversion bill amid worries about the territory's future and outrage over the government's handling of the deadly SARS epidemic.
That protest so shocked leaders in Beijing that they backtracked on the anti-subversion bill and doled out economic incentives to turn around record unemployment in one of Asia's largest financial centers.
China has bluntly ruled out any immediate moves towards greater democracy in Hong Kong despite a massive rally in the territory.
