Daily Press Briefing

Richard Boucher, Spokesman

Washington, DC

March 4, 2004 (EST)

QUESTION: Hong Kong --

MR. BOUCHER: Can we finish with Haiti first? Are we done with Haiti?

Okay. In that case, the lady's going to go --

QUESTION: We learned that Secretary Powell and Deputy Secretary Armitage are going to meet with Hong Kong legislators tomorrow to discuss the democracy for Hong Kong. In the upcoming meetings and the Congress hearing has -- have been characterized and complained by the Chinese Government as meddling in Chinese domestics issues because this is country, two system. And after all, Hong Kong is part of China. And can you explain U.S. justification of this?

MR. BOUCHER: Let me -- let me start by saying I can't confirm any specific meetings for you at this point. I think it's still being put together.

We have always been very interested in the situation in Hong Kong. We've always felt that for the sake of Hong Kong, for the sake of Chinese promises and the basic law, and for the sake of the future of the people of Hong Kong, that Hong Kong's autonomy needed to be respected; in terms of the basic law, in terms of movement towards universal suffrage and democracy needed to be respected, and made no secret of our support for that process.

We have often met with a variety of people from Hong Kong, talked about Hong Kong with friends from Hong Kong in the government, outside the government, in politics, outside of politics. And so when Mr. Lee comes to Washington, we regularly meet with him at a number of levels.

So there are meetings with various people in this building that will be held, as well as meetings he will have with members of Congress. That's not unusual in our system. That's part of our democracy and it's part of our interest in democracy in Hong Kong as well as around the world.

QUESTION: Where do you draw the line between simply monitoring or concerning the situation in Hong Kong, and meddling in Hong Kong or China's domestic issues? But you won't do that, the same thing, to Taiwan.

MR. BOUCHER: We meet with people from Taiwan, too, at different levels. There's -- we -- every country in the world. I mean, you know, we met with British politicians who are not in power, too. Let's face it, the United States has a very broad interest in a lot of societies. We don't apologize for that. We don't cut ourselves off from talking to people. We've just gone through the big flak a few months ago about Israelis that we were meeting with. It's not unusual.

We're interested in what goes on. We have -- and we're not only interested in what goes on, we have an interest in what goes on. And we want to make sure that we understand the situation from all points of view, and that we do what we can to support what we think are our interests, but also in the interests of the people of Hong Kong, and ultimately in the interests of China, to have an autonomous Hong Kong that can be an active part of its society and economy in its own way under its autonomy.

QUESTION: Other than the one country-two system, and the Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong, recently Beijing put forward saying, a criterion saying only patriotic people can -- it's called "Patriotic Criterion." Do you have any comment on this?

MR. BOUCHER: I think we commented on that at the time. Certainly, we've commented on the notion over the years, as it seems to pop up every couple years. But I would just say, you know, along the basic guidelines of what we were discussing: The basic law; Hong Kong's principles of autonomy that we feel are very important to the future of Hong Kong and the future of China; they need to be respected and they need to be carried out in the way that they were envisaged.

Okay.

For complete transcript, please see enclosed.