Word: counciling
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...Hong Kong is such a can-do town of winners that just a couple of reversals can be magnified to give you a loser's image. Tsang's supporters say his retreats are a sign of pragmatism. "He is bold and determined," says Choy So-yuk, a Legislative Council member from the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). "In areas like West Kowloon, he knows when to give up when facing public opposition." Yet for an official who declared in his first policy address that his goal was "strong governance," giving up doesn...
...Kong and Beijing, the future political arrangements of the city need to be settled soon. The Basic Law, Hong Kong's post-1997 constitution, which is based on a Chinese agreement with Britain on the colony's handover, allows that direct elections for the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council are Hong Kong's eventual goal. But the document does not specify a road map or timetable toward it. While China's leaders are committed to the Basic Law, they seem in no hurry to embrace direct elections. "They're anxious about moving too fast," says Anson Chan. "They...
...constitution allows it ... In 2005 I tried to [implement] constitutional reform. I did not succeed, not because people didn't want it. People wanted it; there was majority support for it. But there were some bloody-minded politicians who wouldn't allow it through in the Legislative Council-against the people's wishes. But I'm not giving up ... This summer, based on [all] the various proposals I have received, I'm going to generate a [legislative] green paper on universal suffrage. I'm not talking about intermediate steps. I'm talking about how Hong Kong can achieve universal suffrage...
...political opposition in Hong Kong, the biggest issue is universal suffrage, whereby the Chief Executive and all of the Legislative Council are elected by popular vote. Yet Hong Kong's political system was never meant to be a carbon copy of any sovereign democracy. Unlike other colonies, Hong Kong did not become independent. It became part of a nation-China-and was given not full but a "high degree" of autonomy, under the principle of "one country, two systems." The level of this autonomy is set out in the Basic Law, Hong Kong's constitution under China...
...with democratic principles, but there are many other examples of pragmatism in our political design. Participation by foreign nationals is an obvious one. Permanent residents (those residing in Hong Kong for seven years or more), regardless of their nationality, can elect members of the Election Committee and the Legislative Council, and are not required to pledge allegiance to either Hong Kong or China. The Basic Law also allows non-Chinese permanent residents to be members of both the Legislative Council and the Election Committee. Again, these arrangements are not carbon copies of democratic practices elsewhere. Together with the election methods...