Singapore’s Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said that Beijing is unlikely to give in to the demands of pro democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
He also noted that a lot of Western Media has been portraying the situation with a lot of anti-China bias.
Mr Shanmugam spoke to Lianhe Zaobao and explained that China will probably not give in because if they do, it will have an impact on the rest of China. If China shows weakness and allowed Hong Kong to have their way, similar changes may need to be made in other parts of China in the near future.
Shanmugam indicated that he believes China will be “very careful” and that he understands China’s concerns.
He also spoke about how western media is claiming that China has denied Hong Kong of democracy and that they are restricting the city’s freedom. However, Mr Shanmugam pointed out that Hong Kong has not actually had a true democracy in the last 150 years when the British were in power either.
Shanmugam said that he Sino-British Declaration on the handover of Hong Kong did not mention anything about universal suffrage or the right to vote, something the protesters in Hong Kong are calling for now.
“What Beijing is proposing is more than what Hong Kong ever had under the British. The Western media do not report these,” explained Mr Shanmugam.
Talking more about China’s perspective on the issue, Shanmugam explained that China wants to ensure unity and progress for the 1.3 billion people in China. He said that for China, staying away from a proper democracy will allow them to progress faster and develop more effectively.
Shanmugam gave the example of the US where politics has led to problems about budgets and a lack of much needed law reform because the two major parties keep blocking each other.
Another example was the break up of the Soviet Union and the weakness of Russia following the premature restructuring of political systems before the economics were strong.
Giving these examples, Shanmugam defended China’s move to keep democracy out and not to give in to Hong Kong protesters’ demands.
Shanmugam went on to say that Hong Kongers need to understand that China has acted in accordance with the basic law and they need to recognise that they are part of China and there are some things that China will allow and others that China will reject.
He added that Hong Kong is still heavily reliant on China.