No denial from Hong Kong leader
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Hong Kong's unpopular leader Tung Chee Hwa is fuelling speculation that he is planning to step down soon by declining to deny the reports.
Tung, Chief Executive since July 1997, arrived in Beijing Wednesday. He said only that he would make an announcement "at an appropriate time", adding to the fever-pitch rumors that made headlines in the former British colony Wednesday morning.
Some analysts are suggesting that a leadership change could take the wind out of the sails of Hong Kong's democracy movement.
Tung, 67, travelled to Beijing Wednesday to take part in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an elite advisory body to which he was recently appointed.
Some media reports, citing sources in Beijing, said Tung would quit Hong Kong's top post when his nomination as vice-chairman of the advisory body is approved on March 12.
Other outlets said Tung would resign in a matter of days.
Most reports said he was expected to cite poor health as the reason for leaving the position with two years remaining in his term.
There are fears that installing a new leader would mean a setback for democracy activists, said Michael Degolyer, Director of the HK Transition Project, which has been tracking Hong Kong politics before and after the territory's handover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
"Democrats are alarmed that resignation now would trigger an election under the old 800-member conservative dominated Election Committee, and might return someone very objectionable, even more objectionable than Tung, and saddle them with such a person for at least five years, and postpone any real reform of the CE election procedure for at least five years," Degolyer told CNN.
According to Hong Kong's Basic Law, a permanent successor must be chosen within six months.
Although the territory's Number 2 ranking official, Donald Tsang, could step in as a temporary leader, it is uncertain how a permanent replacement would be decided, according to CNN's Senior Asia Correspondent Mike Chinoy.
"The sense you get from the democracy camp is that this is bad news," Chinoy said.
If a more popular leader is put in place, the drive for democracy could ebb, he added.
Beijing has previously ruled out universal suffrage.
Hong Kong unrest
Tung, a billionaire shipping tycoon before his appointment, has been deeply unpopular since being hand-picked by Beijing to take the reins of Hong Kong under a "one country, two systems" formula.
The city entered a downturn following the Asian financial crisis in 1997.
The gloomy mood was compounded by government moves to introduce an anti-subversion bill, and then its handling of the deadly SARS epidemic in 2003.
Many residents thought Tung mishandled both the legal moves and SARS, which killed around 300 people in the city.
Protestors showed their unhappiness at Tung's style and policies by taking to the streets in massive popular demonstrations, unnerving leaders in Beijing.
Over the past two years, as many as half a million people have marked Hong Kong's national holiday by calling for Tung's resignation and demanding greater democracy.
The protests forced the government to shelve controversial anti-subversion legislation.
Dressing Down
On a visit to Hong Kong and neighboring Macau last December, Chinese President Hu Jintao gave Hong Kong's leaders a rare public rap on the knuckles.
"Officials must improve their capabilities and abilities to govern. The officials must turn back and look over the past seven years and find out what has gone wrong," Hu said at the time.
Government officials tipped off local media about the upcoming resignation on Tuesday night, a source told CNN.
There was a slight possibility Beijing could persuade Tung to change his mind, but the resignation seemed "quite certain," the source said.
There has been no official response to the reports on Tung, with a Hong Kong government spokesman telling CNN: "We do not comment on speculative reports."
The press officer added that he expected that Beijing would make any announcement, not Hong Kong.
Given Beijing's fear that a resignation by Tung could trigger instability, China's control over the territory will likely be even tighter than before. (Full story)
