World News and Trends: China breaks Hong Kong agreement
A foreign affairs journalist, John Simpson, wrote: "Last Monday the convenient fiction on which Britain handed over Hong Kong to China ('one country, two systems') came to an end.
The StandingCommittee of China's parliament, the National People's Congress, declared that the inhabitants of Hong Kong could not elect their chief executive in 2007 [clearly allowed in Hong Kong's current constitution], nor vote for more than half the seats in the territory's legislature in 2008."
This decision came in spite of assurances in the original 1997 agreement and the fact that opinion polls show that two thirds of Hong Kong's population wants to elect their own leader.
The Hong Kong situation is closely related to the dangers facing Taiwan. Mr. Simpson reported that "the commander of the flotilla in the Hong Kong harbour, Vice Admiral Yao Xingyuan, was straight-spoken when someone asked him about Taiwan. 'We are ready for the call from our country,' he snapped, 'We have the capability to maintain the political stability of Taiwan.'
"In other words, China is showing that it exerts a potential control over Taiwan to match its actual control over Hong Kong. If the United States and Britain don't like it, too bad; China has the military strength to do the job if necessary."
What surprised Mr. Simpson was the almost total lack of British and Western outrage about China ripping up the Hong Kong agreement. This shows that many do not really comprehend the historic significance of former British control of this key outpost and the prophetic legacy underlying it. To understand more about this, request our free booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: The Daily Telegraph, The Independent [both London].)
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