Hong Kong Protests at China's Intervention

Thousands of people marched through Hong Kong yesterday to protest against Beijing's increasingly heavy-handed moves to slow the pace of democratic reform.

The demonstrators said the mainland's reinterpretation of the territory's mini-constitution last week invalidated the principle of "one-country, two-systems", under which Hong Kong was supposed to have a high degree of autonomy after its transfer from British rule.

Last Tuesday the national people's congress - the communist-controlled Chinese parliament - declared it would decide the timing and procedure for any change to Hong Kong's system for selecting a chief executive and legis lature. This dealt a blow to civil rights activists, who had been hoping that reforms towards full democracy could be initiated locally soon after 2007, the earliest date permitted by the Basic Law, or mini-constitution.

Waving placards saying "Return Power to the People" and inflatable dolls representing their unpopular leader, Tung Chee-hwa, the estimated 10,000 protesters warned that this first re interpretation of the Basic Law since the 1997 handover would raise tensions between Hong Kong and the mainland.

"This shows the anger of Hong Kong," said the pro-democracy campaigner Leung Kwok-hung. "The central government has violated the Basic Law. A confrontation is unavoidable."