Federation of Trade Unions: "Gradual and orderly progress"

The Federation of Trade Unions endorses the principle of "gradual and orderly progress" towards universal suffrage, according to the President, Executive Councillor Cheng Yiu-tong, in an exchange with the Chief Secretary of Administration, Donald Tsang on 23rd February 2004. Cheng advocates a slow progression towards a democratically elected Chief Executive, saying that a rush to implement universal suffrage would not comply with the principle of "gradual and orderly progress" as envisaged in the Basic Law. The "ultimate aim", as stated in Article 45 of the Basic Law, is a Chief Executive selected by universal suffrage, but this should be conducted according to political realities and the principle of "gradual and orderly progress". Cheng holds that a rush to implement universal suffrage would amount to "not a gradual but a hasty approach", "jumping to the end in one step".

Cheng also opines that the SAR government, especially as concerns political reform, "must listen to the central government's opinions", because this automatically involves Beijing's exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong. He also reiterates Beijing's interpretation of the partnership between the SAR and the motherland, that 'one country' is the "premise and basis" of 'two systems'.

A Chinese University poll shows that public satisfaction with the Central Government's policies for Hong Kong and the performance of key SAR government officials is slipping. On the issue of democratic reform and the introduction of universal suffrage the poll also shows that public support has fallen. When asked whether they supported the introduction of universal suffrage by 2007, just below 70 per cent agreed. This represents a significant decrease of 6.2 per cent; however almost the same number said they did not think that this would happen. A further 45 per cent said that if universal suffrage were not possible in 2007, then the government should aim to implement it by 2012. Therefore whilst a majority still supports the introduction of universal suffrage in Hong Kong by 2007, many accept that political realities in Hong Kong make this unlikely.