Hong Kong | Beijing expels HK tycoon from CPPCC for criticism

Hong Kong tycoon, chairman of Liberal Party James Tien walks out from the Legislative Council chamber in Hong Kong’s Admiralty

A Hong Kong tycoon was expelled from China’s top government advisory body yesterday after he voiced doubts about the city’s Beijing-backed leader, who is struggling to end monthlong democracy protests.
James Tien said he accepted the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference decision to expel him for telling a local radio station less than a week ago that Hong Kong’s unpopular leader, Leung Chun-ying, should consider resigning because he’s done a poor job of running the city.
Tien told reporters he would also resign from his position as leader of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Liberal Party.
His criticism of Leung was unusual for a member of the city’s wealthy tycoon class, who generally fall in line with Beijing when it comes to policies on the semiautonomous southern Chinese city.
Tien’s expulsion from the advisory body is a sign that Leung still has Beijing’s full support even as his approval rating in Hong Kong plumbs new lows. Leung hasn’t been able to deal effectively with student-led protesters who have been occupying thoroughfares in three areas of Hong Kong for more than a month to demand democratic reforms.
CPPCC members voted to expel Tien not because he criticized Leung but because he aired those sentiments in public, contradicting a resolution passed by the body in March expressing support for the city’s leader, according to a Hong Kong delegate.
“If you voice opposition, it shouldn’t be made public because making it public is tantamount to not supporting” Hong Kong’s leader, Chan Wing-kee, a member of the body’s Standing Committee, told reporters in Beijing ahead of the meeting.
The advisory body doesn’t have any formal power in China’s authoritarian political system. Membership is a sign of Beijing’s favor and an opportunity for high-level networking.
Tien, a veteran Hong Kong lawmaker, said that had had forgotten about his position as a member of the Chinese advisory body when he publicly criticized Leung.
“This is something I did incorrectly,” he said, before repeating his view that Hong Kong has experienced big governance problems recently and a successor to Leung would have more success negotiating with pro-democracy lawmakers and protesters on the street.
It’s not the first time Tien has gone against Beijing’s wishes. In 2003 he withheld support for anti-subversion legislation proposed by the Hong Kong’s government that was eventually shelved. The law was aimed at limiting political activity unfavorable to China.
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protest movement has called for Leung to resign but he has repeatedly rejected their demands.
Beijing has promised that residents of the semiautonomous southern Chinese financial center can directly elect their leader starting in 2017 but that a committee would be needed to screen candidates, angering many who call it fake democracy.

yam says protests threaten financial stability despite stock rally

Hong Kong’s former top central banker said the city faces financial instability if pro-democracy protests persist, even as the stock market rallied to its highest since demonstrations began.
“Hong Kong’s prosperity is built on the foundation of being the middleman between China and the rest of the world, especially in the financial sector,” Joseph Yam, the former chief of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the city’s de facto central bank, said in an e-mailed statement. If the city was viewed as uncooperative, the Chinese government would “reduce preferential policies toward Hong Kong in the reform process,” he said.
Yam’s remarks came as a rally in the city’s stocks erased losses on the Hang Seng Index, rising 0.6 percent since Sept. 26, the day student activists kicked off their protests over how the city’s chief executive is elected.
K.C. Chan, secretary for financial services and the treasury, said in a written response yesterday to a lawmaker’s question that “prolonged protests would inevitably affect the confidence of local and overseas investors, which would in turn increase the potential risk to our financial market.”
The damage to the financial industry had so far been limited to the closing of bank branches and the resulting public inconvenience, Chan said, “The linked exchange rate system is robust, interest rates remain steady, and there is no evidence of abnormal outflow,” he said.
The Hong Kong dollar has strengthened 0.02 percent since the protests began on Sept. 26. The Hang Seng Index has risen 0.82 percent during the same period. Kelvin Chan, Business Writer, Hong Kong , AP