Britain Lauds China’s Role in Hong Kong
HONG KONG — Six months after Britain handed Hong Kong over to China, Britain’s foreign secretary praised its new rulers Wednesday for keeping the former colony “genuinely free and prosperous.”
In his first visit since July 1, Robin Cook said Beijing appeared to be keeping its promise that the territory would have a high degree of autonomy as a special administrative region of China.
Hong Kong “has retained its character as a genuinely free and prosperous society,” Cook said in a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce.
But Cook also qualified his praise, saying China did not have “a uniformly positive scoreboard.”
He noted that Britain had protested when China replaced Hong Kong’s elected legislature with an unelected body July 1. London also has “real concerns” about the Hong Kong government’s decision to shrink voting franchises in elections scheduled for May.
He urged the government to broaden the number of voters.
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