LONDON, July 4: Former Singaporean prime minister Lew Kuan Yew has said that new orchested protests over democractic rights of people of Hong Kong were aimed at ``building a point of contention with China.''

``In the West they are not interested in whats going to happen to 6.5 million Hong Kong Chinese and a few others. They just want to use this against China which will become the largest single economy in the world soon. And that's what is worrying America, not Hong Kong,'' he told the BBC World Service. Appearing in the BBC World Service programme Hardtalk Lew Kuan Yew, in an apparent reference to deluge of coverage by the western media said ``it was not without political influence'' and the developed world was worried about China's emergence as an economic superpower.

He termed the overwhelming western media coverage as ``their new found love for the democratic rights of people of Hong Kong.'' Over 8,000 western media-men went to Hong Kong and they concentrated on the power transfer only. Yew said that the Chinese leaders were ``justified'' in their concerns that Hong Kong should not become a base to change or undermine the Chinese system of government. In the interview, Lee Kuan Yew said Tung Che-Hwa, new Hong Kong Chief Executive should keep Chinese concerns in mind.On being asked about Hong Kong's democratic status, Kuan Yew alleged that therehad been very little democracy in the island till the British were pushed into it.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.