President Xi Jinping (right) shakes hands with Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying after the latter’s appointment as a vice chairman of the CPPCC
China’s top political advisory body voted yesterday to appoint Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun- ying to the ceremonial post of vice chairman, ahead of his departure from office in July.
Leung announced in December that he wouldn’t seek a second term as leader of the Chinese-controlled territory, a former British colony that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
His five-year term has been marked by increasingly bitter political divisions between pro-democracy activists and Beijing loyalists. Leung has said Hong Kong is an “inalienable” part of China and independence is not possible.
Members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference voted to appoint him on the final day of their annual 10-day meeting. The body advises China’s rubberstamp legislature and is made up of politicians and representatives from business, the arts, civil society, sports and academia.
China regularly rewards retired or retiring officials for their loyalty with largely ceremonial posts that require them to attend meetings but do little else. Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first chief executive after its return to China, is also a conference vice chairman.
The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post said there were questions over whether Leung’s dual roles in Hong Kong and Beijing contravene the “one country, two systems” law, under which Hong Kong retains a separate economic, legal and political system from the communist-governed Chinese mainland until 2047.
Premier Li Keqiang said at the opening of this year’s meeting of the legislature that the Chinese government would “continue to implement, both to the letter and in spirit, the principle of ‘one country, two systems.’”
Li also for the first time publicly denounced dismissed the territory’s independence as an option, saying: “The notion of Hong Kong independence will lead nowhere.” AP
Law would outlaw insults to Communist heroes, martyrs
Damaging the reputation and honor of heroes and martyrs could be a civil offense under a proposed draft of China’s civil law as the Communist Party further tightens the space for public discourse on historical issues.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday that delegates to China’s ceremonial parliament had introduced the provisions for ratification this week.
Liberal academics and intellectuals have been increasingly pressured in recent years to adhere to the Communist Party’s official interpretations on historical matters.
A professor was forced into retirement in January for criticizing Mao Zedong, while a writer was convicted of libel last year after he challenged the veracity of a famous tale of Communist Party soldiers who allegedly sacrificed themselves in a battle against invading Japanese forces.
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