About 1,000 protesters marched to the Hong Kong government headquarters Sunday to protest a Beijing-backed political reform package that would continue to deny democracy to this semiautonomous Chinese territory, AP reported. Hong Kong enjoys broad Western-style civil liberties but Beijing has refused to allow full democracy in the territory since taking it over from Britain in 1997 _ even though locals often stage protests demanding reforms. Hong Kong's leader is chosen by an 800-member committee stacked with Beijing loyalists. Its 60-member legislature is half-elected and half-chosen by interest groups that tend to side with China. The territory's government last month proposed a limited electoral reform package for the 2012 election cycle that would expand the leader selection committee to 1,200 people and add 10 members to the legislature. The proposed reforms are supported by Beijing, but the pro-democracy opposition _ which has enough legislative seats to block the package _ says they don't go far enough. -- SPA
