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Mar. 3rd, 2005 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pezI tried to get the URL of this article but because it's java popup with no toolbar... well not gonna bother trying to look into the source code. So I'll just copy and paste. I've heard of this before too, as speculative news from HK news sites. This is the article from Times Online yesterday. Coz, you know, some people are at places where news sites are filtered ^_~
March 02, 2005
Hong Kong chief 'to step down for personal reasons'
From Clifford Coonan in Beijing
TUNG CHEE-HWA, the unpopular businessman who took over the leadership of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997, has resigned, newspapers in the territory are reporting this morning, and will be replaced by his right-hand man, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.
The Chinese-language Ming Pao Daily said that the former shipping tycoon handed in his resignation before the Lunar New Year, which started on February 9. It was approved after an emergency meeting of the Politburo in Beijing, The Standard newspaper said.
Mr Tung, 67, has said that his health has been deteriorating, and many believe that this will be given as the reason for his resignation as chief executive. His term is supposed to end in mid-2007. Other reports said that the central Government was still divided over Mr Tung’s exact departure date.
However, many said that his prospects had looked poor after he was given a very public rap on the knuckles by President Hu Jintao for his poor performance.
There was no comment from the Chinese Government on the matter. “We haven’t heard about the news and we have no comment for the moment,” a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing told The Times.
A Hong Kong Government spokesman described the reports as “speculative”.
China has been shocked and angered by calls for democracy in Hong Kong and consistently reiterates the need for political stability in the territory.
Speculation that Mr Tung would go have centred on his elevation this week to a top advisory body of China’s annual parliament. The National People’s Congress meets at the weekend and many analysts see it as a perfect opportunity for Mr Tung to announce his departure. He would then be officially to appointed a vice-chairman of the advisory body, equivalent to a knighthood.
Mr Tung had been an avuncular figure, and known as “Mr 7-11” for the long hours that he worked. Yet he was widely seen as incompetent and remote, and his period as chief executive was characterised by several crises, from his failure to deal with calls for more democracy, his administration’s fumbling of the Sars virus and its lack of decisiveness during three economic recessions.
Mr Tung ran a hugely successful shipping business which he had inherited from his father, an anti-Communist from Shanghai who fled during the Communist Revolution.
He was handpicked by President Jiang Zemin to be Hong Kong’s first chief executive after the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Hong Kong’s constitution states that the territory’s leader must resign when he or she loses the ability to discharge their duties because of serious illness or other reasons. A new executive has to be chosen within six months. Other possible successors include the Financial Secretary, Henry Tang, and the education chief, Arthur Li.
Martin Lee, the territory’s influential pro-democracy politician, said that Mr Tung’s resignation set a “bad precedent” and confirmed Beijing’s desire to run the territory according to its own whims. “This is the end of Hong Kong people running Hong Kong,” Mr Lee told The Standard. “It is true that a lot of people in Hong Kong are unhappy with Tung's performance but now everybody wants to turn him into the fall guy.”
CHANGING RULE
Hong Kong was occupied by Britain in 1841
An agreement to return the territory to Chinese rule was signed by Britain and China on December 19, 1984
It became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on July 1, 1997
The 1984 accord gave Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy in all matters except defence and foreign affairs for 50 years from the handover
Donald Tsang to replace him, hm? He was excellent when he did the treasurey, not sure how he did when he moved onto his current post (haven't really been looking), and one can never tell, when a man has the entire Chinese government pressing down on you, how that man'd react, if he's going to save his own ass, fight for HK or find some sort of middle-ground.
Hmmmmm makes me feel weird that, if he really is to resign, it isn't the march on 1/7 that forces him to the decision.
March 02, 2005
Hong Kong chief 'to step down for personal reasons'
From Clifford Coonan in Beijing
TUNG CHEE-HWA, the unpopular businessman who took over the leadership of Hong Kong from Britain in 1997, has resigned, newspapers in the territory are reporting this morning, and will be replaced by his right-hand man, Chief Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.
The Chinese-language Ming Pao Daily said that the former shipping tycoon handed in his resignation before the Lunar New Year, which started on February 9. It was approved after an emergency meeting of the Politburo in Beijing, The Standard newspaper said.
Mr Tung, 67, has said that his health has been deteriorating, and many believe that this will be given as the reason for his resignation as chief executive. His term is supposed to end in mid-2007. Other reports said that the central Government was still divided over Mr Tung’s exact departure date.
However, many said that his prospects had looked poor after he was given a very public rap on the knuckles by President Hu Jintao for his poor performance.
There was no comment from the Chinese Government on the matter. “We haven’t heard about the news and we have no comment for the moment,” a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing told The Times.
A Hong Kong Government spokesman described the reports as “speculative”.
China has been shocked and angered by calls for democracy in Hong Kong and consistently reiterates the need for political stability in the territory.
Speculation that Mr Tung would go have centred on his elevation this week to a top advisory body of China’s annual parliament. The National People’s Congress meets at the weekend and many analysts see it as a perfect opportunity for Mr Tung to announce his departure. He would then be officially to appointed a vice-chairman of the advisory body, equivalent to a knighthood.
Mr Tung had been an avuncular figure, and known as “Mr 7-11” for the long hours that he worked. Yet he was widely seen as incompetent and remote, and his period as chief executive was characterised by several crises, from his failure to deal with calls for more democracy, his administration’s fumbling of the Sars virus and its lack of decisiveness during three economic recessions.
Mr Tung ran a hugely successful shipping business which he had inherited from his father, an anti-Communist from Shanghai who fled during the Communist Revolution.
He was handpicked by President Jiang Zemin to be Hong Kong’s first chief executive after the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Hong Kong’s constitution states that the territory’s leader must resign when he or she loses the ability to discharge their duties because of serious illness or other reasons. A new executive has to be chosen within six months. Other possible successors include the Financial Secretary, Henry Tang, and the education chief, Arthur Li.
Martin Lee, the territory’s influential pro-democracy politician, said that Mr Tung’s resignation set a “bad precedent” and confirmed Beijing’s desire to run the territory according to its own whims. “This is the end of Hong Kong people running Hong Kong,” Mr Lee told The Standard. “It is true that a lot of people in Hong Kong are unhappy with Tung's performance but now everybody wants to turn him into the fall guy.”
CHANGING RULE
Hong Kong was occupied by Britain in 1841
An agreement to return the territory to Chinese rule was signed by Britain and China on December 19, 1984
It became the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China on July 1, 1997
The 1984 accord gave Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy in all matters except defence and foreign affairs for 50 years from the handover
Donald Tsang to replace him, hm? He was excellent when he did the treasurey, not sure how he did when he moved onto his current post (haven't really been looking), and one can never tell, when a man has the entire Chinese government pressing down on you, how that man'd react, if he's going to save his own ass, fight for HK or find some sort of middle-ground.
Hmmmmm makes me feel weird that, if he really is to resign, it isn't the march on 1/7 that forces him to the decision.
