Hong Kong lawmakers veto reform plan

Instead, they predicted, the legislators’ move would likely deepen Beijing’s distrust of pro-democracy lawmakers in this former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Since returning to China, Hong Kong has been run under a "one country, two systems” formula that had been promised as a way to give the city wide autonomy.

Beijing has balked at allowing full democracy but said universal suffrage is a long-term goal. Hong Kong’s people meanwhile enjoy civil liberties — like the freedom to hold political protests and criticize their leaders in the media — that those on the mainland do not share.

Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents marched against the reform plan earlier this month.

The government’s proposed changes called for expanding the legislature by 10 seats and doubling the size of an 800-member committee of elites — many of them Beijing loyalists — that picks Hong Kong’s leader.

The government said it was the best deal it could offer until Hong Kong’s public reaches a consensus on how to become fully democratic. Until that happens, a gradual approach is best, the government and pro-Beijing lawmakers said.

But pro-democracy lawmakers argued that Hong Kong’s well-educated, stable and affluent society was ready to choose its leaders long ago and shouldn’t have to wait any longer.

The pro-democracy faction is in the minority with only 25 seats and usually loses legislative battles. But the reform proposal had to pass by two-thirds — or 40 — of the 60 lawmakers.

The first part of the package — which only got 34 votes — proposed doubling the size of the committee that picks the city’s leader. The second part — which also fell six votes short of approval — called for expanding the legislature.

As the pro-democracy lawmakers debated the reforms, many argued that a rejection should not call their patriotism into question.

"We love our country. We want to have a unified China,” lawmaker Cheung Man-kwong said. "It doesn’t mean we’ll be blindly following others’ orders.”

Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang said the government had no plans to propose new reforms until 2008.

Meanwhile, lawmakers have to improve their relations with Beijing, he said.

"In order to reach universal suffrage, we have to build trust,” Tsang said.

Joseph Cheng, a political science professor at City University of Hong Kong, expressed doubt that China’s leadership was genuinely interested in meaningful political reform in Hong Kong.

"In order to have democracy in Hong Kong, you have to have democracy in China first,” Cheng said. "The Chinese leadership has no intention of weakening its monopoly on political power. The leadership simply does not believe that democratization is an option at the moment.”