times in Hong Kong that one can read dozens of press clippings on this controversy without being able to reach any firm conclusion as to the facts on this central issue. In this as in many other controversies, Hong Kong opinion leaders must start to focus on the central issue.
It is also characteristic of the times that the government gave no clear statement of its policy, if such was its policy, to prosecute a group for using loud hailers because it believed their purpose to be inconsistent with the rule of mutual nonsubversion. Likewise, it resorted to technicalities in explaining its ban on service for the Goddess of Democracy ship.
17
Meanwhile, Beijing's policy has hardened. In December 1989, Beijing wamed, 18 somewhat ambiguously, that:
"When Hong Kong compatriots want to raise opinions to the central government, they should do it through legal channels and in a legal way, such as, through the National People's Congress deputies, or the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee members, or submitting a written statements and appealing to the higher authorities. If unsuitable means are adopted to express one's own viewpoints, things might go contrary to his wishes and damage might be brought upon the friendly relationship between the mainland and Hong Kong."
While it promulgated this Delphic warning, Beijing did not in fact take action against any particular demonstration or editorial criticizing its policies. However, in February 1990, Li Hou, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, warned that the Hongkong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China might be banned after 1997 for advocating the overthrow of China's current leadership. After Hong Kong demonstrations in June 1990 commemorating the Tiananmen Square turmoil, Li Hou explicitly denounced the
demonstrations as subversive. This seemed to be a clear reversal of the
tolerant policy of a year earlier.
19
At the same time, several significant demonstrations and denunciations were held without Chinese protest. 20 Moreover, copies of the two most virulent opponents of the Chinese leadership among major world newspapers, the Asian Wall Street Journal and the South China Morning Post are circulated free in major hotels in Guangdong and are available at major hotels and elsewhere in Beijing. This means they circulate widely among the Chinese elite. In this case, the Chinese government is much more liberal than Singapore's. There seems to be contradiction and change in the Chinese position, and this may mean that there is room for negotiation.
Government has not
been forthright
No - I made, it
quote
des.
Beijing has reversed a
wise policy
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