HONG KONG: Beijing’s top representative in Hong Kong has ruled out open nominations for candidates to become its next leader, the strongest sign yet that China’s pledge of democracy for the former British colony by 2017 comes with conditions.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 with the guarantee of wide-ranging autonomy and an independent judiciary and press under the formula of “one country, two systems”.
It is the freest city in China, but every year on the anniversary of the handover, thousands take to the streets demanding fully democratic elections amid mounting fears of increased meddling by Beijing’s Communist Party leaders.
Zhang Xiaoming, the head of Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong, said open nominations for the leader, or chief executive, would not be allowed.
Zhang’s open letter to a major pro-democracy group, the Civic Party, quoted the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, as saying that all candidates could only be nominated by a “broadly representative nominating committee”.
“There is no option,” Zhang said in the letter. That means the nominations will instead come from a small election committee stacked with Beijing loyalists who would essentially veto any opposition candidates from running.
The letter was published on the Liaison Office’s website amid what observers say is an intensifying propaganda push by Beijing to downplay expectations for democratic polls. Reuters
