Saturday, 21-Sep-2002

HONG KONG, Sept 22 (AFP) - The next leader of Hong Kong's Catholic diocese has pledged to protect religious and human rights in the territory and hit out at efforts by the "leaderless" government to court Beijing's approval, a report said Sunday.

Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, 70, a vocal critic of the government, added the Church would do its utmost to protect the "one country, two systems" agreement which had guaranteed the former British colony 50 years of autonomy on its reversion to Chinese rule in 1997.

In an interview with the Sunday Morning Post, Bishop Zen said Hong Kong was peddling backwards in terms of human rights, citing the slow pace of democracy and the contentious right-of-abode issue as examples.

"We do not want to see Hong Kong becoming like any other city in the mainland," he said.

"If other kinds of freedom are in danger, we are going to lose religious freedom very soon. So we have to speak out at once if we see any freedom being jeopardised."

He said the Church's mission was to speak out against social injustice and it was not his personal agenda, but rather one established by the Vatican and followed by Cardinal John Baptist Wu Cheng-chung, 77, who has been receiving treatment for bone marrow cancer and is expected to be succeeded by Bishop Zen at any time.

Bishop Zen's comments come as the government contemplates accelerating moves toward enacting controversial anti-subversion laws in the territory.

Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the government is obliged to enact laws prohibiting treason, sedition, subversion, secession and the theft of state secrets.

Senior Chinese officials led by Vice Premier Qian Qichen, who is responsible for Hong Kong affairs, have told the territory to enact the subversion law as soon as possible.

But some legislators fear such laws could run counter to Hong Kong's policies on freedom of speech and have argued that prohibition of treason and subversion are covered by existing legislation.

Bishop Zen had strong criticism for Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and his officials, saying Hong Kong was effectively "leaderless" and accused them of having done many "stupid things" to please Beijing.

"This toadying culture will destroy Hong Kong. It means people have to do something that the government likes and what Beijing likes," he warned.

Bishop Zen, who has been critical of the government's right-of-abode policy in which thousands of mainland Chinese who lost the right to live here were sent back to China causing many families to split, also slammed Tung for not meeting with human right activists to discuss the issue.

However, he admitted that some inside the church disliked his outspoken style.

The Catholic diocese has more than 230,000 followers in Hong Kong.

Cardinal Wu is the fifth bishop of the Hong Kong Diocese and was appointed to his post in 1977.

http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/cj/Qhongkong-church.Rd4i_CSM.html