Hong Kong's choice

Washington Post: News you may not have noticed: A legislative election in the Chinese-ruled region of Hong Kong the other day produced a landslide victory for opposition candidates who propose that full electoral democracy be instituted within the next four years.
With a record turnout of some 1.7 million voters, out of a population of 6.8 million, pollsters estimated that 60 percent to 67 percent chose pro-democracy candidates -- despite a concerted and frequently ugly campaign by China's Communist rulers to buy off or intimidate the electorate. The result was more evidence of the powerful appeal of democracy in a region where it once was written off, as well as a hopeful sign of where both Hong Kong and mainland China may be headed in the future.
The problem -- and the reason this seemingly momentous development didn't attract larger headlines -- is that the democrats' victory may have little immediate practical effect. That's because China has so skewed the political system of Hong Kong -- which is supposed to be separate from that of the mainland -- that the democrats captured only 25 of 60 seats in the Legislature, despite their huge majority in votes.
Thirty of the seats went to candidates chosen by business and professional associations mostly controlled by Beijing, while electoral rules awarded others to pro-government candidates who finished behind the democrats.
Popular mandate
Moreover, authorities in Beijing pre-emptively announced in April, five months before the election, that they would not accept the opposition's platform for fully free elections for Hong Kong's Legislature in 2008, or its chief executive in 2007 -- even though Hong Kong's constitution provides for the possibility of such a reform. So the opposition representatives will have to take office with a powerful popular mandate for change and no clear means to act on it.
Perhaps this checkmate will, over time, deprive Hong Kong's opposition of its support and erode the appeal of democracy. More likely, it will simply discredit the Chinese leadership in Beijing and its proxies in Hong Kong. It will also send a clear message to Taiwan, whose people will reasonably conclude that their thriving democracy would not survive union with China.