One Country, Two systems

In Saturday's South China Morning Post, the unlinkable news source for all manner of crackpot letter writers, there was a letter from noted Hong Kong personality Margaret Chu of the One Country, Two Systems Research Institute. In this letter, she made the following statement:

Factually incorrect, insulting and denigrating a popular cause, all in two short sentences! Truly, we get value for money from our letter writers these days.

It's Factually Incorrect. She states baldly that expatriates do not get a vote even if they are permanent residents. Well, I have a vote, and I'm an expat. I spotted at least one other expat coming out of the voting hall, as well, so there's at least two of us. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are a few more than that.

It's Insulting. Notice how she cunningly groups expats with criminals. Does she think that all foreigners are criminals? Sounds pretty racist to me. As far as I know, in Hong Kong, those serving time in prison don't get to vote. I'm unsure about whether their right to vote is returned once they have left prison. It should be, after all, you are deemed to be rehabilitated once you've done your time.

It Denigrates a Popular Cause. There is a call for Universal Sufferage in Hong Kong. This is a plea to allow the people of Hong Kong to elect the Chief Executive by a popular vote. Currently he is 'elected' by a small group of 'electors' chosen to reflect interests friendly to Beijing. Given that we have free, and what certainly seem to be, fair elections to elect some of our legislative councillors, it only seems fair to extend that right to the office of what is effectively our Mayor.

Is this the quality of the research which we should expect from the One Country, Two Systems Institute? Insulting opinions which are factually incorrect?