The MAC calls on Chinese government to show its sincerity in promoting democracy
With regard to the recent incidents such as the mass hunger strike staged in Hong Kong to strive for universal suffrage and China's ban on the Hong Kong-based Yazhou Zhoukan magazine, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) solemnly indicates that on the one hand, the Chinese government has declared that it will push and promote democratization in China, but on the other hand, it has repeatedly ignored the mainstream public opinion in Hong Kong and made excuses to postpone universal suffrage there. It has even banned a magazine that has exposed the facts, in an attempt to cover up its graft and corrupt practices. The MAC expresses regret over various kinds of Chinese actions that run counter to the universal value of democracy and sabotage the freedom of the press.
The MAC indicates that according to the various public opinion surveys conducted in Hong Kong in recent years, approximately 60 percent of the Hong Kong people, especially those between 18 to 29 years of age, hope that universal suffrage will be carried out as soon as possible. Among this group of people, who form the core of society in the future, as many as 80 percent hope that it will be materialized in or before the year 2012. However, the Chinese government has made excuses claiming that universal suffrage will be carried out “based on the actual circumstances” and in accordance with the principle of “gradual implementation,” so as to perfunctorily handle the expectations of the Hong Kong people. Moreover, the Chinese government has delayed realizing the Hong Kong Basic Law’s promise of universal suffrage through the interpretation of the Basic Law by the Standing Committee of the "National People's Congress." China’s constant disregard for the Hong Kong people’s democratic appeals has forced them to stage a hunger strike to fight for universal suffrage, which in democratic countries is already considered a basic political right of the citizens. Should China even have the nerve to prattle about its determination to promote and implement democracy?
The MAC indicates that in order to win the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, when submitting its bid in 2001, China made several promises to the international community that concrete improvements in human rights, press freedom, and environmental protection would take place in China ahead of the Games. However, according to a survey released on August 1, 2007 by the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC), the Chinese administrative agencies have never relaxed restrictions on news coverage. On the contrary, they have continued to track and monitor, threaten and harass, and illegally detain journalists, and even made countless violent infringements upon the reporters and their information sources. Recently, the Hong Kong-based Yazhou Zhoukan published a series of reports indicating that the deterioration of the Chinese government’s governance performance has triggered the sporadic outbreaks of mass incidents, which has become a difficult problem for the Chinese government. Such critical reports have incurred the ire of the Beijing authorities, who have thus blocked subscription channels in China. Such violations of press freedom by the Chinese authorities show that China’s so-called declaration regarding "full press freedom" was only aimed at creating a false impression. As such, the "regulations" formulated by China were only expedient measures taken to ease criticisms.
The MAC urges the Chinese government to actively respond to the Hong Kong people’s appeals for the implementation of universal suffrage and to implement the protection of press freedom in order to show its sincerity in promoting democracy.