Official: Beijing not involved in radio resignations

A high-ranking central government official denied any involvement by Beijing in the recent resignations of three Hong Kong radio talk show hosts who had voiced their dissatisfaction with Beijing's management of the territory's political system. State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan told a Hong Kong television station that the successive resignations of Albert Cheng, Raymond Wong and Allen Lee were not ordered by Beijing, adding that one of the men, which he did not name, was intending to flee to Canada because of personal debts. Lee said that before his resignation he had been told by a former Chinese official that his wife was very virtuous and his daughter very beautiful, which he interpreted as a threat. Tang said that the recent interpretation of Hong Kong's Basic Law, which denied the territory direct elections for its chief executive in 2007 as written in the mini-constitution, was meant to protect prosperity, stability and development in the special administrative region.