NO "MASSACRE" AT TIANANMEN -- BEIJING LOYALIST'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HONG KONG 001323

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EAP AND EAP/CM
NSC FOR DENNIS WILDER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/16/2032
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PREL HK CH
SUBJECT: NO "MASSACRE" AT TIANANMEN -- BEIJING LOYALIST'S
COMMENTS STIR SHARP DEBATE

Classified By: E/P Chief Laurent Charbonnet. Reasons: 1.4(b,d).


1. (C) Summary: Hong Kong will not be ready for universal
suffrage until "around 2022" -- or 25 years after the
handover -- because many Hong Kongers lacked "national
awareness," said Ma Lik, chairman of Hong Kong's largest
pro-Beijing political party. Ma referred to the local
characterization of the Tiananmen Square incident as a
"massacre" as an example of how Hong Kong was not yet ready
for universal suffrage. Ma's remarks drew condemnation from
a broad spectrum of Hong Kong society; his own party is
seeking to clarify his statements. His comments are the
latest in a series of attempts by Beijing loyalists to dampen
expectations for an early introduction of universal suffrage.
End Summary.


2. (C) Comment: Ma Lik's ill-conceived statements have
caused a maelstrom of debate in Hong Kong only two weeks
before the 18th commemoration of Tiananmen. The Tiananmen
massacre had a searing effect on the Hong Kong psyche, coming
as it did only a few years before the return of Hong Kong to
the mainland. Even "patriotic" Hong Kongers, to this day,
treat those memories with caution and respect. Ma is not
known for being a hard-core leftist, but we have been
unimpressed with his political sophistication and
communication skills. Others in the DAB leadership are more
savvy about interpreting Beijing's expectations into forms
palatable to the Hong Kong audience. In the near term, the
DAB will be forced to backpedal and clarify their chairman's
statements; he may very well have boosted the turnout for
this year's Tiananmen candlelight vigil. Over the long term,
Ma has provided more ammunition for pro-democracy politicians
to question the willingness of pro-Beijingers to protect Hong
Kong's freedoms. End Comment.

No "Massacre"
--------------


3. (SBU) Hong Kong will not be ready for universal suffrage
until "around 2022" -- or 25 years after the handover --
because many Hong Kongers lacked "national awareness," said
Ma Lik, chairman of Hong Kong's largest pro-Beijing political
party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and
Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). Ma referred to characterization
of the Tiananmen Square incident as a "massacre" as an
example of how the local population had not received a proper
"national education" and was not yet ready for universal
suffrage, during a routine press conference on May 15. "We
should not say the Communist Party massacred people on June

4. I never said that nobody was killed, but it was not a
massacre...A massacre would mean the Communist Party
intentionally killed people with machine guns
indiscriminately." He added, "'Gweilos' (slang for
foreigners) shouldn't be allowed to decide what really
happened at Tiananmen on June 4, 1989."


4. (SBU) Ma's remarks drew immediate criticism from
pan-democrats. Cheung Man-kwong, a Democratic Party
legislator, told the "South China Morning Post" that he was
"shocked and sad to hear Ma Lik, who I thought was an
intellectual, try to whitewash history." Ma's ill-timed
remarks, said Cheung, would boost the number of participants
in Hong Kong's annual June 4 demonstration. Szeto Wah,
chairman of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic
Democratic Movement in China, a group deemed "subversive" by
Beijing, said that Ma had brought shame onto himself. "Facts
written in blood cannot be twisted by lies." Besides the
expected excoriation by pro-democracy activists, Ma's remarks
also sparked angry public comments to morning call-in shows.

Damage Control
--------------


5. (SBU) In response to the public outcry, Ma tried to
explain his remarks today. "What I meant is to look at the
incident rationally. It happened a long time ago. I was not
insulting those who lost their lives in Tiananmen Square to
fight for democracy." But, he added, "The description of the
June 4 incident as a massacre and a river of blood, I think
all these are not complete and correct views."


6. (C) The DAB leadership is trying to put some distance
between the party and Ma's controversial comments. Lau
Kong-wah, DAB vice chair, told the media, "Our Chairman has
stirred up an argument...If this caused some unnecessary
damage and debate, the DAB is willing to apologize." Greg

HONG KONG 00001323 002 OF 002


So, DAB vice chair, told us privately May 16 that Ma's
comments on universal suffrage and Tiananmen were his own
personal views and did not necessarily represent the party's
views. (The party has not yet publicly stated this,
however.)

One by One, Leftists Rule Out Universal Suffrage by 2012
-------------- --------------


7. (SBU) Separately, Ma Lik's comments about postponing the
implementation of universal suffrage until 2022 are only the
latest in a steady stream of recent public comments by
pro-Beijing loyalists to lower public expectations for the
introduction of universal suffrage by 2012. The Government
is expected to release a green paper in mid-July, which will
put forward three options for constitutional development.
Preparatory to this, politicians in Hong Kong have been
releasing their individual plans to attain universal
suffrage. Executive Council (Exco) member and former DAB
chairman Jasper Tsang told the media that he expected the
central government would support full democracy for the Chief
Executive (CE) election no sooner than 2017 and a fully
elected Legislative Council (Legco) in 2020. Tsang added
that Beijing would not accept any proposal on the CE election
that did not include proper and sufficient safeguards to
ensure that all CE candidates were acceptable to Beijing. On
May 13, Cheng Yiu-tong, also an Exco member and the President
of the (pro-Beijing) Federation of Trade Unions (FTU),stated
that he believed the earliest date for implementing universal
suffrage would be 2017. Cheng placed the blame for the delay
squarely on the pan-democrats' failure to pass the
Government's constitutional reform proposals in December

2005. Ma's comments were the first public statements
indicating that Hong Kong's lack of right-think was a
fundamental impediment to democracy.
Cunningham