Sunday, 06-Jul-2003

Story from AFP / Peter Lim

HONG KONG, July 7 (AFP) - Hong Kong's government bowed to mounting pressure early Monday and announced it would postpone a controversial security bill that was to have been voted into law this week.

Around 500,000 people marched against the proposed law on July 1 in Hong Kong's biggest demonstration in more than a decade, as calls grew for the anti-subversion legislation to be delayed for further public consultation.

Late Sunday the leader of the pro-government Liberal Party, James Tien, resigned from chief executive Tung Chee-hwa's cabinet as his party demanded a deferral of the bill's final reading on Wednesday.

Tien's resignation prompted an emergency cabinet meeting after which Tung announced the delay.

"In light of the position of the Liberal Party, we have decided, after detailed deliberations, to defer the resumption of the second reading of the bill and to step up our efforts to explain the amendments to the community in the coming days," Tung said in a statement early Monday.

However, Tung did not say when the proposed law -- which critics say will erode political freedoms and curb free speech in Hong Kong -- would be resubmitted.

Tien told reporters later that he had been left with "no choice but to resign" from Tung's cabinet since he could not agree with the government's timetable on the legislation.

"It is good" that the government decided to delay the legislation, said Tien. "I hope we have more time" to carefully scrutinize the bill, which he said was "the most important piece of legislation" since the handover of the former British colony to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

Tung and other senior officials were tightlipped when they appeared at work on Monday.

Justice secretary Elsie Leung told reporters the government would "continue to listen to views as well as explaining" the bill to the people.

"The legislation of Article 23 must be carried out," since it was every citizen's responsibility, she said.

The decision to delay came less than 48 hours after Tung's government had announced it was removing three key elements of the bill while insisting however that Wednesday's vote would go ahead as planned.

Despite massive public opposition, the law had been expected to pass smoothly, with pro-government lawmakers forming a majority in the 60-member Legislative Council -- the city's lawmaking body.

But the Liberal Party's stand made the fate of the bill less certain.

"More time is still needed for the community to fully understand the bill," Tien's party said in a statement announcing his resignation.

[...]

Critics are concerned China's communist leaders could use the law to suppress freedoms, stifle reporting of official abuses, prevent protests against the government and block access to legal representation.

The concessions announced on Saturday would notably see the removal of a provision enabling authorities to proscribe organisations banned in China, including the Falun Gong spiritual movement.

A provision giving police the power to conduct searches without warrants in national security investigations was also to be struck from the bill, while public interest was to be included as a valid defence for the unlawful disclosure of "certain official information".

Democratic Party Chairman Yeung Sum welcomed the deferral of the bill.

"The victory must go to the people in Hong Kong who are so courageous and so peacefully demonstrated on the street to voice out their demand," he said on RTHK radio.

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/av/Qhhongkong-subversion.RoZD_Dl6.html