President Chen Shui-bian received representatives of the "Taiwan Trade Chamber in Hong Kong" this morning. Besides expressing his welcome to the visitors, he also praised the efforts that the chamber has made in providing service to the Taiwanese businesspeople in Hong Kong, protecting their interests and cooperating with the government's policies in promoting trade exchanges between Taiwan and Hong Kong.
In his speech, the president emphasized that Hong Kong plays an important role in the relations between Taiwan and China. A constructive Hong Kong-Taiwan relationship is not only beneficial to interaction between the two places, but also instrumental in promoting normalization of cross-strait ties. Besides paying more attention to the democratization of Hong Kong, expanding the service to Taiwanese people in Hong Kong in the future, the government also expects the new Hong Kong chief executive, Mr. Donald Tsang, to keep his election promises as to strengthen governance, create harmony, provide more wealth to the people, protect the basic rights and well-being of the 6.8 million people in Hong Kong, and keep on boosting interaction and exchanges between Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The president's speech is as follows:
I am very happy today to have the opportunity to meet you, gentlemen, who are living in Hong Kong. I would like first to express my warmest welcome to you to have come back here just for this event. Since the establishment of the "Taiwan Trade Chamber in Hong Kong" in 1992, the chamber has been active in providing services to Taiwanese businesspeople and protecting their interest as well as cooperating with governmental policies, promoting exchanges between Taiwan and Hong Kong. I would like to express my highest respect and gratitude to the cadre of the chamber on behalf of the government.
After "1997" and "1999," in consideration of the peculiar situation and the importance of Hong Kong and Macao, the government maintained its Hong Kong and Macao policy of goodwill, pragmatism and assistance by setting up a "Hong Kong Affairs Department" and a "Macau Affairs Department" under the Mainland Affairs Council to handle Taiwan-Hong Kong and Taiwan-Macau affairs. At the same time, under the joint efforts of the government and overseas Taiwanese in Hong Kong and Macacu, an office was estabslished at the Hong Kong Airport and another at the Macau Airport consecutively to offer "visa on arrival" and "e-visa" services to travellers to Taiwan. Personnel of these two offices also helped in successfully completing the "Taiwan-Hong Kong" and "Taiwan-Macau" aviation talks and interchanges. In the future, the government will be more open-minded and more active in promoting relations between the island and Hong Kong and Macau.
It has been eight years since Hong Kong's retrocession. At that time, China was advocating the so-called "one country, two systems" formula, promising that Hong Kong would be ruled by its people with high degree of autonomy.
However, if we scrutinize the record carefully, we could find there were at least 163 instances in the past eight years that violated Hong Kong's autonomy, interfered with its judicial independence and freedom of speech.
Since last year, the Chinese government, under the pretext of the National People's Congress interpreting the law, has refused Hong Kong's many requests for a universal suffrage and limited Hong Kong's political reform schedule and interfered with the election of the chief executive this year. Last year, a television program was forced to stop because its host received pressure from the Chinese government. This year, a Singaporean journalist based in Hong Kong was arrested allegedly for spying that raised international attention. All these incidents have proved that the "one country, two systems" is just a lie. The "one country" is true, but the "two systems" is a lie.
In the past eight years, Hong Kong is one of the very few places in the world where personal freedom and judicial advancement have been downgraded. This dire evidence which contradicts with the trend of democratization could serve as a warning to the world's democracy and peace lovers, and such an incident is absolutely not going to happen to the 23 million people living in Taiwan.
First we would like to congratulate Mr. Donald Tsang on being elected as chief executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. But every one should have noticed that this election was accomplished by only 800 committee members who had the right of vote, and the vote was supervised by the Chinese government with only one candidate joining the race.
In this election, the 6.8 million people of Hong Kong have not only been deprived of their basic political rights, but also been forbidden of making any dissent. It is a pity that such a prosperous and advanced society has to be forced to carry this heavy pillory of despotism and autocracy. This is the most pitiful and sorrowful thing that is happening to Hong Kong that used to be called "The Eastern Pearl."
Tsang's swearing-in ceremony was held in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, contrary to the past practice that the chief executive's inauguration was held in Hong Kong, an indication that Hong Kong's soveriegn status has been on the decline.
As a matter of fact, the difficulties that Hong Kong has encountered are not relevant to the capability of the chief executive. The problem lies in the institution. If China cannot accelerate its political reform and adopt universal values such as freedom, democracy, human rights and peace, not only Hong Kong's development is going to be limited, the entire China might not maintain its stable growth.
Two days after Tsang's inauguration, which is June 26, Beijing officially announced its slogan for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing that goes: "One World, One Dream." Its intention is to let China know more about the world and have more access to the world, and at the same time the world could learn more about China and accept China.
Since China bidded for the right to organize the Olympic Games in 2008, it has showed its ambition to show the world that through the strives made in the past 50 years China is now determined to shake off the image of being a weak and poor country in the past decade and to become a powerful nation in the world through the hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games. Such a nationalistic mentality is understandable.
Being a powerful and strong country doesn't necessarily mean that it gains the respect of other countries. Surely the hosting of the Olympic Games is a good stage to demonstrate a country's integrated national power, but the International Olympic Committee's goal of pursuing freedom, solidarity, peace, friendship and progress should also be the values that the 2008 Olympics in Beijing has to hold dear. Therefore, if the official slogan of this Olympic Games could be changed into "One World of Peace, One Dream of Freedom," it is believed that the world will give it a higher admiration and affirmation, and at the same time, it might be capable of giving the spirit of the Olympic Games a better interpretation.
Hong Kong plays an important intermediary role in the cross-strait relations. The Taiwan-Hong Kong relationship not only is in the interest of mutual exchange and interaction, but also can promote the normalization of the cross-strait ties. The government will not only keep on paying attention to Hong Kong's democratic development in the future and expand the service to the Taiwanese in Hong Kong, but also hopes that chief executive Tsang could keep his election promise as to create a harmonious society in Hong Kong and protect the well-being and rights of the 6.8 million people in Hong Kong. Moreover, it will strengthen exchanges and interaction between Taiwan and Hong Kong, promote the good relationship between Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, and contribute to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
In conclusion, I would like to express again my gratitude to you, gentlemen, for your visit and the consistent support you have given to the government. I wish you and your family peace, health and luck.