HK democracy a 'British plot'

Hong Kong (Reuter) - Plans for democratic reform in Hong Kong are part of a conspiracy to maintain and expand British influence in the colony long after its 1997 handover to Peking, an official Chinese magazine said.

'Britain's objective is not merely to impose forcibly this British-designed representative government system on to Hong Kong before 1997, but also to extend it and make it stand firm for 50 years after 1997,' Bauhinia magazine said. Excerpts of the article were published yesterday by the pro-Peking China News Service.