The long march in Hong Kong : Transitions to democracy in Hong Kong

Both the schedule and substance of democratic reform will require support of two- thirds of the Legislative Council (LegCo), consent of the Chief Executive and the approval of the Standing Committee. [...] Called the “Accountability System for Principal Officials,” the accountability of the officials is to the Chief Executive, not to the legislature or people of Hong Kong. [...] The Chief Secretary Donald Tsang became Acting Chief Executive according to the process outlined in Article 53 of the Basic Law.3 The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress ruled that the new Chief Executive will serve for approximately two years (until 2007), being the end of Tung’s prior term, as set forth in the electoral timetable contained within the Basic Law. [...] The new accountability system of Hong Kong tries to address the question of how the public service can be made accountable to the Chief Executive, but it is silent on the prior question of how the government as a whole is to be made accountable to the citizens of Hong Kong. [...] The ideology of the Chinese Communist Party has however been substantially re-oriented in light of expansive market reforms and the capacity of the PRC to ensure social stability will continue to be called the test of the regime.9 Yet, democratic electoral legitimacy is obviously the biggest challenge for the Hong Kong accountability framework because neither the governance structure of the Hong K