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DEMOCRACY
Britain should push China on HK democracy, says ex-governor
by Staff Writers
London (AFP) Nov 04, 2014


Myanmar's Suu Kyi to visit China this year: party
Yangon (AFP) Nov 04, 2014 - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will make her first official visit to China next month, her party said Tuesday, as the veteran activist reaches out to a powerful ally of the former junta.

The Nobel laureate, who plans to lead her party into elections next year seen as the litmus test of Myanmar's transition towards democracy, will travel to China within weeks, her party said.

"It is true that there is a trip planned to China in December," a senior member of her National League for Democracy (NLD) told AFP, asking to remain unnamed.

He said it was not yet clear who Suu Kyi would be meeting.

The Myanmar politician, who has publicly stated her wish to become president if rules currently barring her from the job are removed, has previously suggested the relationship with Beijing is crucial to her country.

China is a major investor in resource-rich Myanmar and was a key ally when the country languished in isolation under the junta.

But it has seen its influence wane as Myanmar's reforms have thrust it into the global spotlight.

Changes, including allowing Suu Kyi and her party into parliament and freeing most political prisoners, have seen Western sanctions largely swept away and caused a wave of international investors to rush to the country.

But projects to tap the nation's abundant natural resources for export to China have sparked particular resentment as the country opens up.

Myanmar's president suspended a Chinese-backed mega-dam in September 2011 after a public outcry.

Suu Kyi drew flak for defending a controversial Chinese-backed copper mine in March 2013, urging local people to drop calls for its closure because it would harm the local and national economy.

"We have to get along with the neighbouring country whether we like it or not," she told angry villagers at the time.

But the 69-year-old politician, who spent a total of 15 years under house arrest during military rule, also risked provoking China's anger when she met the Dalai Lama on the sidelines of a Prague rights conference in September 2013.

Officials from China's embassy in Yangon said they were unable to confirm the visit when contacted by AFP. But they said Beijing kept in contact with all Myanmar political parties, including the NLD.

Britain must push to see genuine democracy introduced in its former colony Hong Kong, whatever China says, the last UK governor of the territory Chris Patten said Tuesday.

Patten, who oversaw the transfer of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule in 1997, said Beijing's assertions that the situation in the city was no longer anything to do with London was not the case, due to the binding agreements signed between the countries.

He said Britain should not be afraid of clashing with China over the issue, saying fears it would hurt trade ties were unfounded.

Refusing to criticise Beijing publicly "encourages China to behave badly", he said.

"When China asserts that what's happening in Hong Kong is nothing to do with us, we should make it absolutely clear, publicly and privately, that that is absolutely not the case," said Patten, saying he was "amazed" that the British Foreign Office was not pushing this with Beijing.

The 1984 Joint Declaration set out the terms of the 1997 handover.

- 'Spitting in face' of accord -

"It's certainly, in a sense, to spit in the face of the Joint Declaration to say that it's nothing to do with us -- which is what Chinese officials regularly do," Patten said.

"The Joint Declaration provides obligations on China to us for 50 years."

He said that regrettably, the agreement did not say anything about the method for elections, simply that they would take place.

"It's probably the case that we never really shared with China what we meant by democratic elections, by fair elections. Maybe we should have been more explicit with the Chinese side," said Patten.

He said things in Hong Kong were moving in the right direction, but at a "glacial pace".

He said there was a "seriously sad" and "extraordinary lack of leadership" from Hong Kong's chief executive, claiming there were many things that would "show a willingness to reach a settlement".

Meanwhile London could be offering "sensible suggestions" as to how Hong Kong and China could "get out of the corner they are painting themselves into".

Patten was speaking before parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, which is looking into Britain's relations with Hong Kong 30 years on from the Joint Declaration.

Protesters have held continuous street rallies for a month, demanding free leadership elections for the semi-autonomous city in 2017.

He said the demonstrators were "a generation that feels they are having their future stolen".

"The aims of the demonstrators should be to get a serious dialogue with the government but things may have gone past that now," Patten said.

"The worry now is that it's become increasingly difficult for anybody to climb down."


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DEMOCRACY
Myanmar's Suu Kyi to visit China this year: party
Yangon (AFP) Nov 04, 2014
Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will make her first official visit to China next month, her party said Tuesday, as the veteran activist reaches out to a powerful ally of the former junta. The Nobel laureate, who plans to lead her party into elections next year seen as the litmus test of Myanmar's transition towards democracy, will travel to China within weeks, her party said. ... read more


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