Trade agreement moves Hong Kong closer to China

HONG KONG -- China and Hong Kong signed a free-trade agreement Sunday that will open parts of the booming mainland to Hong Kong companies more quickly than for other competitors.

Also, in the next few days, Hong Kong is expected to enact a tough new national security bill that outlaws subversion, sedition, treason and other crimes against the state -- with more power for police and life prison sentences for many offenses.

Six years after Hong Kong returned to China, the two steps integrate the former British colony much more closely with the Chinese motherland, and some say the timing is not coincidental.

Activist Law Yuk-kai of the Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor called the free-trade pact a "payback" for business leaders who have gone along with Hong Kong despite what critics call a gradual erosion of civil liberties since the territory was returned to China on July 1, 1997.

'Send a gift'

"They want to send a gift for Hong Kong on the anniversary," Law said in a telephone interview Sunday. "They want to say, 'Look, we're helping you in many ways, so perhaps you should understand our concerns as well.'"

The free-trade deal gives Hong Kong concessions promised to other World Trade Organization members, only more quickly, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told business and government leaders after a signing ceremony inside the former British colonial governor's mansion.

The pact will eliminate tariffs on hundreds of Hong Kong products sold in the mainland, such as the 6 percent charged on some antibiotics and the 35 percent charged on some jewelry.

It has not yet answered the tricky question of how to define a product as "made in Hong Kong" -- but businesses are already counting the millions of dollars they can save. Financial Secretary Antony Leung predicted benefits will start flowing into the economy almost immediately.

'Only the first step'

Wen called the pact "only the first step toward closer economic partnership between Hong Kong and the mainland," at a time when Hong Kong is struggling to recover from the economic fallout of the SARS crisis that devastated businesses.

Outside the ceremony, a small group of protesters repeatedly tried to set fire to a letter addressed to Wen, and police kept extinguishing it -- proof that people here still have the right to demonstrate and they exercise it.

But while the trade deal may have had business executives celebrating, pro-democracy campaigners, human rights groups, journalists, lawyers and others who fear for Hong Kong's freedoms say this is no time to applaud the state of Hong Kong.

Tens of thousands of people are expected to take to the streets Tuesday to protest the anti-subversion law, which appears headed for certain passage in a few days in Hong Kong's Legislative Council dominated by big business and pro-Beijing lawmakers.

Opposition legislator Cyd Ho predicted Sunday that journalists are likely to become far more cautious about what they report after the law is passed.

"The government here won't chop their heads off immediately, but the chilling effect will be felt immediately," Ho said.

Ever since Hong Kong's handover, it has been required by Article 23 of its mini-constitution, the Basic Law, to outlaw subversion, treason, sedition and other crimes against the state.

The government began work on the law last year. Critics charge that officials are going way too far with a measure that could lead to mainland-style repression of unpopular viewpoints or groups, such as the Falun Gong meditation sect outlawed as an "evil cult" in China.

In Washington, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly condemned the anti-subversion proposal last week, and the White House expressed concern.

Hong Kong insists its opponents are wrong and the law will not be used to stifle dissent. The government said the law is only intended to stop people from carrying out extreme actions such as trying to overthrow the government.

"We have to make sure that we are patriotic. We have to maintain the fundamental interests of our nation," Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa told lawmakers last week. "National security is something we cannot trifle with."