Hong Kong's Tortuous Democratization: A Comparative Analysis by Ming Sing

Author:Ming Sing [Sing, Ming]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Democracy, Political Ideologies, Political Science, Asia, History, China
ISBN: 9780415320542
Google: niNhq9dPMQYC
Publisher: Psychology Press
Published: 2004-01-15T09:55:57+00:00

Figure 7.1 Capitalization value of leading companies with representatives in the PC, SC or PL: proportion of the total value of all shares listed in Hong Kong’s stock market.

Source: Calculations based on data from the Hong Kong Economic Journal, (December 1996), pp. 126–32; (December 1995), 126–32 and Ming Pao Daily, 2 November, 1996.

The Chinese Government preferred to exercise water-tight control over the membership of the high-powered Preparatory Committee. Beijing thus did not appoint anyone belonging to the pro-democratic parties of the Democratic Party or the Frontier to the Preparatory Committee.17 Nor could any member of the Democratic Party or the Frontier be found in the Selection Committee or Provisional Legislature. Instead, the Chinese Government and the Selection Committee only absorbed a token number of members from a more moderate pro-democracy party, the Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood into the Preparatory Committee (two) and the Provisional Legislature (four). Though the PRC invited the Democratic Party to stand for the alleged “election” for the Provisional Legislature, the latter chose not to participate in tokenism. Insisting on the illegality of the Provisional Legislature, and believing that only a disproportionately small number of members of the Democratic Party would be chosen by the pro-Beijing Selection Committee even if they were to join the race, the Democratic Party leaders were convinced that its moral basis and political support would dwindle once it participated in the Provisional Legislature.18 As a result, the interim legislature contained no members of the Democratic Party.

The dominance of pro-Beijing figures in the Preparatory Committee, the Selection Committee, and the Provisional Legislature is reflected by the fact that a high proportion of them were granted prior appointments by the Chinese Government into bodies under its control, such as the National People’s Congress (NPC), the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) or Hong Kong Affairs Advisors (HKAA). Eighty-three out of the ninety-four Hong Kong members of the Preparatory Committee, or 88 percent, had been granted positions in at least one of those bodies by the PRC before they joined the former. Likewise, in the Provisional Legislature, thirty-six out of sixty members, i.e., 60 percent of it, held similar titles before joining it. Their prior appointments into China-controlled bodies have again corroborated their pro-Beijing standing.

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