Ex-deputy to the NPC also said Beijing needs to rethink policy towards Hong Kong, by appealing to people’s hearts
TONY.CHEUNG@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Wednesday, 04 May, 2016, 11:10pm
Chu said he would cut his throat if he failed to convince every journalist at the press conference that there is no problem with Hong Kong’s young people. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
Beijing should beware of people in Hong Kong, including the city’s leader Leung Chun-ying, who “treated patriotism as a business that they can benefit from”, a former member of the Chinese parliament warned on Wednesday.
David Chu Yu-lin, an ex-deputy to the National People’s Congress, also called for “a new start” in Beijing’s policy over Hong Kong because the “one country, two systems” principle cannot be implemented by exerting control over people, but by appealing to their hearts.
Chu was speaking two weeks after he made a surprise appearance at a sit-in to protest how Leung and his wife allegedly exerted pressure on airport staff to deliver their daughter Leung Chung-yan’s bag to a closed-off area at the airport in March.
Chu claimed he learned from a source that the chief executive reduced an airline worker to tears over the phone while trying to get his daughter’s left luggage delivered, but Leung reiterated on Tuesday that he and his family did not do anything wrong.
Theatre director Clifton Ko Chi-sum, who witnessed the airport protest, had described those involved as “crazy dogs”.
Hosting what Chu described in response as “the craziest of press conferences” yesterday evening, Chu said he has to remind Beijing about Hong Kong’s problem so that the city can turn a new page.
“There are more and more people in Hong Kong who do things to please Beijing ... these people treat patriotism as a business,” Chu said.
Referring to President Xi Jinping’s trade and development strategy, he said: “Look at how Leung has been actively promoting ‘One Belt, One Road’ ... it made me feel that he is this kind of person as well.”
Chu had said that Beijing’s stringent policy on Hong Kong was partly to blame for the city’s problems, such as social disharmony and political divide.
Chu added that he was worried about incidents such as the violent clashes between protesters and police in Mong Kok in January, as well as the rise of pro-independence sentiments.
But unlike many lawmakers and officials, Chu insisted that there is no problem with the city’s young people. “The problem lies with our adults, especially one of them,” he said, in a reference to the chief executive.
Chu and Leung have a long history, both serving in the four years up to Hong Kong’s handover in 1997 in the Preliminary Working Committee and the Preparatory Committee, which helped the Chinese government prepare for the city’s return to the mainland.
The Chief Executive’s Office did not respond to thePost’s inquiry last night, but executive councillor Cheng Yiu-tong said Chu’s accusations were “groundless”.
“’One Belt, One Road’ is a national policy that will benefit all of Hong Kong ... You also have to look at Leung’s portfolio, he did not become a patriot all of a sudden,” Cheng said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/1941397/david-chu-cy-leung-sees-patriotism-business
