Martin Lee branded a Ming traitor

A Xinhua article has compared Martin Lee to one of the most heinous traitors in Chinese history in the latest of a series of attacks which seem to intensify daily. The commentary, by Tang Hua, deputy editor of Outlook Weekly, likens him to a legendary Ming dynasty general Wu Sangui, who sold the country out to Manchu invaders in 1644, paving the way for the Qing Dynasty.

“It's not at all excessive that Hong Kong people branded Martin Lee and his followers ‘Wu Sangui’ and ‘traitors’. He will eventually be cast aside by Hong Kong people,” Tang says in the article. “What's shameful is that Martin Lee relied on foreign forces and willingly became their pawn.”

Tang also accuses Lee of telling lies to the Senate by arguing that the Basic Law stipulated that there would be direct elections for the Chief Executive in 2007 and the Legislative Council in 2008. Lee has degraded himself, states Tang, by lying in order to bring about foreign intervention and “lacks the basic quality of honesty”. The article argues that by misrepresenting the Basic Law thus, Lee is “hampering” the democratic development of the SAR. “People like Lee cannot represent Hong Kong people's desires,” the article says, adding that his behaviour is damaging the cause of democracy. “Society will soon realise that those who cause Hong Kong's democratic development not be undertaken smoothly are those who are chanting the democracy slogan,” it says. “The Basic Law has provided a forceful guarantee for democratic progress in Hong Kong and can effectively protect Hong Kong people's democratic rights, and Martin Lee's activities can only hamper the development of democracy in Hong Kong.”

In response to this scathing attack on Lee’s personal and political integrity, the democrat contended that the article is merely a ploy to discourage people from voting for democrats in the coming Legislative Council election in September. He also responded that he had told the truth in the Senate hearing.

“I did not lie,” he told Cable TV, referring to the testimony he and three other campaigners gave to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “I went there to give Americans the true picture . . . and they [China] are still criticising me. There is nothing more I can do. I will not give up telling the truth.”

The article also blasts US Senator Sam Brownback, chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, for interfering illegally in Hong Kong's affairs by inviting Lee to testify. It claimed that Brownback’s intervention is not only for “personal motives”, but is aimed at occupying the “international vacuum” in Hong Kong after the end of British rule in 1997, and is an effort to harm Sino-US relations. The article calls on the Senator to stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.

The article argues that it is absurd for Brownback to write in his article, carried in the Asian Wall Street Journal, that the US Congress "provides for the treatment of Hong Kong as a distinct entity". Tang notes that the SAR is a local administrative region of China, by no means an independent entity, and claims that this is virtually denying China's exercising sovereignty in Hong Kong. The article also examines in detail the necessity and feasibility of practicing in Hong Kong the Basic Law, which, to those "Brownbacks", is “the greatest obstacle to their conspiracy”. It proceeds to criticise Brownback's remarks stigmatizing the Basic Law, and concludes that without the Basic Law, there would be no legal basis for Hong Kong, which will ruin the sound business environment and also harm the interests of foreign investors in Hong Kong.

Xinhua also cites remarks by Premier Wen Jiabao at a press meeting following the closing session of the National People's Congress. “I sincerely hope that Hong Kong residents can take into consideration the broad situation of the long-term prosperity and stability as well as the long-term and fundamental interests of Hong Kong residents, be united and work together with firm determination for a better future of Hong Kong”, Wen says. The article comments that “as long as people take [this] as the guiding spirit for developing the political mechanism in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong society can reach a wide consensus on the issue and well administrate the HKSAR.”

Beijing’s bitterness over Lee’s trip to Washington and his continued support for universal suffrage and other democratic reforms seem to intensify daily. With the September LegCo elections only a few months away, Beijing continues to marginalise key democrats in a bid to influence the outcome of the election. Whether this will backfire, remains to be seen. What is clear is that this shows that the Communist Party is still trying to rely on fostering hatred and high emotions in order to achieve their political objectives, a tactic reminiscent of earlier times.