Hong Kong and Chinese officials have once more sounded a warning note to anyone wishing to stand for election in the former British colony, with "no guarantees" that anyone calling for democracy in China won't be excluded from public life.
"It is very difficult for the Chief Executive to foresee what will happen in the future and ensure or guarantee anything," Chief Executive Carrie Lam told journalists this week. "Is it right to talk about one-party dictatorship [in China]? As for the consequences of shouting such slogans, it is also difficult for me to answer here concretely or with assurance," she said.
But she added: "I think it is a reasonable argument that we should also respect the fact that mainland China is a socialist society."
Her comments came after Hong Kong's only delegate to the National People's Congress (NPC) standing committee, Tam Yiu-chung, suggested that people who call for an end to one-party rule in China should be barred from standing for election in Hong Kong.
"It is very difficult for the Chief Executive to foresee what will happen in the future and ensure or guarantee anything," Chief Executive Carrie Lam told journalists this week. "Is it right to talk about one-party dictatorship [in China]? As for the consequences of shouting such slogans, it is also difficult for me to answer here concretely or with assurance," she said.
But she added: "I think it is a reasonable argument that we should also respect the fact that mainland China is a socialist society."
Her comments came after Hong Kong's only delegate to the National People's Congress (NPC) standing committee, Tam Yiu-chung, suggested that people who call for an end to one-party rule in China should be barred from standing for election in Hong Kong.
