U.S. and Hong Kong (2004)

State Department Briefing, March 4, 2004

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher briefed.

Following is a transcript of the briefing:

(begin transcript)

U.S. Department of State

Daily Press Briefing
Richard Boucher, Spokesman
Washington, DC
March 4, 2004

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: We learned that Secretary Powell and Deputy Secretary Armitage are going to meet with Hong Kong legislators tomorrow to discuss the democracy for Hong Kong. In the upcoming meetings and the Congress hearing has -- have been characterized and complained by the Chinese Government as meddling in Chinese domestics issues because this is country, two system. And after all, Hong Kong is part of China. And can you explain U.S. justification of this?

MR. BOUCHER: Let me -- let me start by saying I can't confirm any specific meetings for you at this point. I think it's still being put together.

We have always been very interested in the situation in Hong Kong. We've always felt that for the sake of Hong Kong, for the sake of Chinese promises and the basic law, and for the sake of the future of the people of Hong Kong, that Hong Kong's autonomy needed to be respected; in terms of the basic law, in terms of movement towards universal suffrage and democracy needed to be respected, and made no secret of our support for that process.

We have often met with a variety of people from Hong Kong, talked about Hong Kong with friends from Hong Kong in the government, outside the government, in politics, outside of politics. And so when Mr. Lee comes to Washington, we regularly meet with him at a number of levels.

So there are meetings with various people in this building that will be held, as well as meetings he will have with members of Congress. That's not unusual in our system. That's part of our democracy and it's part of our interest in democracy in Hong Kong as well as around the world.

QUESTION: Where do you draw the line between simply monitoring or concerning the situation in Hong Kong, and meddling in Hong Kong or China's domestic issues? But you won't do that, the same thing, to Taiwan.

MR. BOUCHER: We meet with people from Taiwan, too, at different levels. There's -- we -- every country in the world. I mean, you know, we met with British politicians who are not in power, too. Let's face it, the United States has a very broad interest in a lot of societies. We don't apologize for that. We don't cut ourselves off from talking to people. We've just gone through the big flak a few months ago about Israelis that we were meeting with. It's not unusual.

We're interested in what goes on. We have -- and we're not only interested in what goes on, we have an interest in what goes on. And we want to make sure that we understand the situation from all points of view, and that we do what we can to support what we think are our interests, but also in the interests of the people of Hong Kong, and ultimately in the interests of China, to have an autonomous Hong Kong that can be an active part of its society and economy in its own way under its autonomy.

QUESTION: Other than the one country-two system, and the Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong, recently Beijing put forward saying, a criterion saying only patriotic people can -- it's called "Patriotic Criterion." Do you have any comment on this?

MR. BOUCHER: I think we commented on that at the time. Certainly, we've commented on the notion over the years, as it seems to pop up every couple years. But I would just say, you know, along the basic guidelines of what we were discussing: The basic law; Hong Kong's principles of autonomy that we feel are very important to the future of Hong Kong and the future of China; they need to be respected and they need to be carried out in the way that they were envisaged.

Okay.

QUESTION: Still on --

MR. BOUCHER: Still on China?

QUESTION: Yeah. Could you --

MR. BOUCHER: Okay, we're trying to get to the back -- these people who have been trying hard and you've been interrupting. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: Well -- well, anyway, could you comment on China's release of the democracy activist after this Wang Youcai?

MR. BOUCHER: Yeah.

QUESTION: And also, is there any hope now that the Uighur businesswoman, Rebiya Kadeer, might also be released?

MR. BOUCHER: I'll see what we know and can give you on that.

First of all, we welcome the release of Mr. Wang Youcai. He's a long time Chinese democracy activist and a co-founder of the China Democratic Party. He was serving an 11-year sentence for peaceful political activities. He was released on medical parole last night, and I think he's currently on an airplane to the United States.

At this point, we have no further information about his plans in the United States. We usually let people, when they get here, decide what they want to do.

We are also pleased that there was a one-year sentence reduction for Rebiya Kadeer; however, we're disappointed that she was not released from prison, as she appears to meet all the necessary conditions for parole in the Chinese system.

Wang Youcai and Rebiya Kadeer are two examples of individuals imprisoned for attempting to exercise basic freedoms of speech and assembly in China. We, once again, call on the Chinese Government to release all prisoners detained for peaceful expression of their views.

Okay. Sir.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

QUESTION: And would you continue with another round of six-party talks, despite a failure so far to get any -- I don't know -- document or any other committal from North Korea?

MR. BOUCHER: Going into this, coming out of this, we were never obsessed with documents. We were happy to work with others on documents.

Early on, as we started to approach this round, during the talks itself, there was a lot work done on possible documents. In the end, what we ended up having was a Chinese chairman's statement because not only the United States, but other parties, were not in a position to accept the changes North Korea wanted at the last minute.

So we -- but we were never tied to a document, nor are we now. The goal --

QUESTION: I said, "Or any other form of committal."

MR. BOUCHER: Well, there has to be commitment, there has to be progress, there has to be action, as we move down this road. But the goal of the process is to get that committal and get that action, and we'll continue to work it.

And as I say, we think we did take a step forward in Beijing by bringing the focus and the direction of the discussions clearly onto the question of complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons pro -- nuclear programs.

[ ...Intervening Text... ]

(The briefing was concluded at 1:05 p.m.)

(end transcript)