Beijing Wants Total Control Of HK: Martin Lee

Veteran democrat Martin Lee warned on Friday that the latest move by Beijing to introduce a new security law for Hong Kong is only the beginning and the aim of the Chinese Communist Party is to take “comprehensive” control of the SAR.

“They want to set up offices, agencies in Hong Kong. They will send down cadres from the Chinese Communist Party to supervise the government, the executive, the legislature, and more importantly, the judiciary. This is only the beginning, I tell you,” said the veteran democrat.

“They want comprehensive administrative power,” he added.

He said it is misleading to suggest that Hong Kong is unable to enact its own security law in the foreseeable future, since it is the pro-Beijing camp that has dominated the legislature over the years and this is likely to continue after the September elections.

The founding chairman of the Democratic Party said what Beijing is doing is unconstitutional and the central government will continue to bring in more "draconian" laws for Hong Kong.

"They will allow Hong Kong's Legco to legislate bread and butter issues. But the draconian laws will continue to be drafted in Beijing, bypassing the Legislative Council, which is unconstitutional,” said Lee, who was a member of the Basic Law Drafting Committee from 1985 to 1989.

Lee also said Hongkongers shouldn't accept a "One country, Two systems" that exists in name only, even if that's what Beijing wants.

Instead people, including the international community, should insist on Beijing sticking to its promise that Hong Kong people will be ruling Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy.

"They are breaking this fundamental promise of the joint declaration," he said. We must not allow them to get away with it. We are standing on the moral high ground."

Lee said mutual destruction, known as "lam chau" in Cantonese, is not the way forward for Hong Kong.

"I will keep on saying ‘you are in breach, you are in breach, come back to Deng Xiaoping’s way'," said Lee, who was involved in the negotiations that led to the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997.