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China launches pulse-taking exercise in Hong Kong

HONG KONG: Beijing launched a high profile exercise on Saturday to tap opinions on its plans to govern Hong Kong following the British colony's transition to Chinese rule next year.

The weekend exercise was expected to be a test of Beijing's ability to tolerate opposing, even dissenting opinions, common in freewheeling Hong Kong but regarded with unease by the ageing, authoritarian leadership in Beijing.

Protests greeted China's envoy Lu Ping when he flew in on Thursday for the survey on Beijing's plans for selecting the ruler who will govern Hong Kong upon the handover at midnight on June 30, 1997.

China's critics complain Beijing will only listen to those who already support its views but Lu issued a statement saying more than 100 organisations and individuals were invited to the consultations in a genuine effort to hear out the public.

Chinese diplomat Chen Zuo'er, speaking at an opening photocall, urged delegates to feel free to speak their minds.

Delegates said they were given three to five minutes to make their addresses to a caucus drawn from Beijing's hand-picked Preparatory Committee responsible for reimposing Chinese sovereignty over the economically-vibrant British colony.

The caucus, made up of mainland and Hong Kong delegates, has invited views on how it should choose a 400-strong "selection committee" which in turn will choose Hong Kong's first post-colonial leader.

The selection committee is also charged with appointing the controversial Provisional Legislature at the centre of much furore.

Last week, a teachers' union was barred from the weekend session because its leaders, both of them Democratic Party politicians, had denounced China's plan to dissolve the elected legislature upon the handover and replace it wit.

China has refused to permit members of the Democratic Party, which it regards as subversive and which strongly opposes the provisional legislature, play any part in the transition process.

Their opposition to China's plan to dismantle the existing fully-elected Legislative Council (Legco) and replace it with an appointed chamber have left them sidelined from the transition process.

China attempted to silence a lone dissenting voice in the Preparatory Committee itself, excluding legislator Frederick Fung from playing a role in the selection process after he opposed the provisional legislature at a committee meeting in Beijing.

The influential Bar Association representing barristers -- lawyers who argue cases in court -- has voiced its opposition but its leaders say they expect to testify on Saturday.-Reuter