Hong Kong talks

John Cushnahan MEP met Tung Chee-Hwa, chief executive of Hong Kong, on his visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg in October. Mr Cushnahan is rapporteur on Hong Kong for the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, and is responsible for monitoring developments there. During the debate, he expressed serious concern at recent developments, which do not augur well for human rights. He instanced the reduction in the franchise from 2.7 million to 180,000, the repeal of trade union legislation and question-marks about the independence of the judiciary. He repeated the same message in his meeting with Mr Tung, which he described as "refreshingly frank and open".