Taipei, June 23 (CNA) Hong Kong's "democracy and press freedom" have been continuously regressing since its return to China and there is no sign of possible improvement at this moment, scholars and journalists from Hong Kong and Taiwan said Saturday in asymposium.
As Hong Kong was the model city in Asia for its cultural diversity and economic development in the 1980s and 1990s, now it looks like Taiwan in the 1950s and 1960s, political wise, said Tung Li-wen, a professor and the vice president of Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, in a syposium one week before the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover to China.
The United Kingdom returned control of Hong Kong to China on June 30, 1997, signifying the end of British ruling for over 100 years.
July 1, 2003, when half a million Hong Kong residents marched on streets to protest against the Basic Law that had stripped away the basic civilian freedom, was an important date in Hong Kong history, Tung said.
"Before that day, Chinese government didn't think the governence of Hong Kong is a big problem. After that, it knew Hong Kong would be a big problem, " he said.
"The past 10 years of Hong Kong can be summed up with three characteristics: inconsistent economy, regressed democracy, and diverted media, " said Paul Lin, a political commentator who fled from China to Hong Kong and now lives in Taiwan.
China's failed experience in Hong Kong was the main reason why it had never mentioned that Hong Kong's "One country, two systems" framework would serve as a good example for Taiwan after 2003, Tung noted.
"It is also interesting that 'chief executive' has become a term of insult and "SAR" (special administrative region) basically means puppet regime in Taiwan, " he added.
Donald Tsang, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region, is smart to direct people's attention to economy instead of politics, Lin said. However, Hong Kong's economy was not as optimistic as it seemed since it had relied heavily on China since 1997, he stressed.
A number of Hong Kong press members lamented about self-censorship and self-restraint of Hong Kong media. Because of China's tighter control and interference, Hong Kong's press freedom has dropped to 66th in the world in 2006 in the independent Freedom House survey, said Woo Lai Wan, chairperson of Hong Kong Journalists Association.
Woo called for a "never retreat" mentality against the oppression from China for Hong Kong and Taiwan media alike.