Hong Kong (AsiaNews) Two Chinese law experts, Xiao Weiyun and Xia Yong, dampened Hong Kong's hopes for full democracy by 2007.
The two Chinese experts, one a jurist and the other one of the drafters of the Basic Law, visited the territory before the Chinese New Year. While they said they were not official envoys sent by the government to Hong Kong, they confirmed that the island's mini-constitution could not be amended in a short amount of time. The longest awaited reform concerns Article 45, regulating the way in which Hong Kong's chief executive is elected. The article decrees that elections should be based on universal suffrage.
Hong Kong citizens have already rallied twice in support of universal suffrage and direct election of the chief executive: once on July 1 2003 during a 500,000 person march and a second time on Jan. 1 2004, when 100,000 marched.
Dr. Xiao said after the visit that "a constitutional change of such a degree cannot be expected in so short a time. We must wait at least 50 years for a system which expects to have one country and two forms of government. This doesn't mean Hong Kong must wait until 2040, but it can't expect anything before the year 2020."
The visit, despite being unofficial, was of great influence for Chinese rulers who fully support the experts' statements.