The former British colony of Hong Kong has all the attributes of a liberal society except one: its people lack the ability to choose who governs them. The latest political convulsion in the territory has been caused by electoral arrangements proposed by the National People’s Congress, which would prevent democrats and others of whom China might disapprove from seeking election as chief executive in a vote of Hong Kong’s citizens.
前英国殖民地香港具有一个自由社会的所有属性，唯一的例外是香港市民缺乏选择由谁管治自己的能力。这个特别行政区最新的政治痉挛是由全国人大提议的选举安排引起的，这一安排将阻止民主派和中国可能不认同的其他派别人士竞选行政长官，参加一场全体市民投票的选举。
Such vetting is more or less what happens in Iran. Sooner or later this plan, or a modification of it, will have to be voted on by Hong Kong’s legislature, and I hope a compromise can be found. The territory’s citizens remain remarkably moderate and responsible. It is not democracy that produces the sort of mass demonstrations we have recently witnessed but its denial.
这种审核在一定程度上与伊朗的制度相同。这个计划（或其修改后的版本）迟早将提交香港立法会投票表决，我希望各方能够找到一个妥协方案。香港市民仍然是非常温和、负责任的。酿成我们近期见证的那种大规模示威的，并不是民主，而恰恰是对民主的拒绝。
I have expressed my agreement with Andrew Li Kwok-nang, the distinguished former Chief Justice, who has written that Beijing’s views on the status of the Hong Kong judiciary raise concerns about judicial independence and therefore the integrity of the rule of law. But in the 17 years since I left the territory at the end of my term as the last British governor, I have tried to avoid being drawn into the debate about democracy there, lest my intervention complicate matters.
我已经表达了我认同香港终审法院前首席法官李国能(Andrew Li Kwok-nang)的看法。他写道，北京方面对于香港司法体系地位的观点，令人担忧司法独立，进而担忧法治的完好性。但在我结束自己末任香港总督任期、离开香港以来的17年里，我一直试图避免卷入有关香港民主的辩论，以免我的介入使问题复杂化。