HONG KONG (AP) – Prominent Chinese law expert Xiao Weiyun, an opponent of full democracy who helped draft Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, has died. He was 81.

Xiao, a law professor at Beijing’s renowned Peking University, died of a sudden heart attack on Saturday in a Macau hospital, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. He was in the gambling enclave to give lectures at a university there, according to Xinhua.

Xiao, one of the drafters of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, stirred an outcry last January when he opposed a quick transition to full democracy in this former British colony that returned to China in 1997. Many in Hong Kong have demanded the right to pick their next political leader by universal suffrage in 2007, but Xiao said that such a move would go against the principle of “gradual and orderly” reform as stated in the Basic Law.

Last April, China’s top legislative panel, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, formally ruled out full democracy in the near term for Hong Kong.

Two months ago, Xiao also lashed out at Hong Kong’s opposition lawmakers for pushing a referendum on the democracy issue, despite Beijing’s April ruling. He had called the move disrespectful.

AP-ES-01-22-05 2318EST