China Reform Monitor: No. 846

August 12:

“Scouts” from China’s central government and members of the pro-Beijing Democratic Party are meeting about whether or not to push forward Article 23 of the Basic Law. The article states “The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall enact laws on its own to prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the Central People's Government, or theft of state secrets.” Before the end of the year Beijing would like to use the measure to crackdown on dissidents from the mainland that now enjoy freedom of speech and association in Hong Kong. Some Democratic Party members of the legislative council, like Chang Wen-kuang, are hesitant, however. In comments carried by the Ming Pao he gave four reasons his party should oppose the law: (1) there is no imminent need to increase state security; (2) it will weaken the Hong Kong peoples’ confidence in the legislature; (3) Hong Kong’s special administrative region's chief executive Donald Tsang does not have enough support from lawmakers; (4) if forced forward, the measure might cause a public backlash making Taiwan more resistant to unification.

[Editor’s Note: Article 23 has long been a political hot potato in Hong Kong. In 2003, Beijing first tried to push it forward and as a result, Tung Chee-hwa, then Hong Kong’s chief executive, faced 500,000 street protesters. About a year later, after being branded a Beijing stoolie, Tung agreed to a series of compromises to weaken the measure before he “stepped down owing to foot pain.”]

August 18:

The CPC has further tightened its grip on Tibetan monasteries. At a conference in Xigaze, Tibet Du Qinglin, chief of the CPC’s United Front Work Department, announced that the monks appointed to the management committees of Tibetan monasteries and temples must be “politically reliable.” Monasteries are also required to step up patriotic education and strengthen monks' awareness of "national unity and social stability" and play a leading role in "anti-separatist struggles," Du said. After the unrest in 2008, Beijing has come to believe that many Tibetan intellectuals, monks and elites it had thought were loyal where in fact Tibetan nationalists. Back in January President Hu Jintao told a government work symposium on Tibet that the CPC’s policies regarding the management of religious affairs must be strictly adhered to in ethnic Tibetan areas, the South China Morning Post reports.

August 19:

At a speech before the Hong Kong Journalists' Association, Hao Tiechuan, director-general of Beijing's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, said that during a crisis, the media ought to prioritize assisting the government’s effort to monitor it. Hao said Beijing’s policies to maintain order were comparable to U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation of the slaves during the American Civil War, which he said was also “unconstitutional,” Hong Kong's RTHK Radio 3, reports.

August 20:

The Press Trust of India reports that Indian lawmakers in both houses of parliament and from both the ruling Congress party and opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party have come together to echo unprecedented public concern over China’s military buildup on the Indian boarder. While a BJP member spoke in the Lok Sabha (India’s lower house of Parliament) about China’s threat to India, a Congress party member in the Rajya Sabha (upper house) condemned the growing disparity in defense spending and preparedness between the two countries. One BJP parliamentarian announced that China has moved new advanced longer range CSS-5 missiles closer to the Indian border and declared: "We have not forgotten the 1962 war!"

August 21:

To help facilitate transportation systems integration, China will coordinate with five ASEAN countries to construct an extensive railway system linking the Mekong River region. China, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand and Vietnam endorsed the plan at the Greater Mekong Sub-region Ministers Meeting. The railway system is scheduled to begin service in 2025 with a capacity of roughly 3.2 million passengers and 23 million tons of goods. Upgrading existing railways is budgeted at $7 billion and new construction costs are estimated at $1.9 billion, eTaiwan News reports.