Beijing to allow Hong Kong democracy in 2017
Hong Kong’s communist leaders in Beijing said they would allow the territory to directly elect its own leader in 2017 and all its lawmakers after that, but critics warned China would still be in control behind the scenes.
“A timetable for obtaining universal suffrage has been set,” Hong Kong’s leader, Donald Tsang, said in announcing Beijing’s decision early today. “Hong Kong is entering a most important chapter of its constitutional history.”
The decision comes amid fierce debate between political camps in Hong Kong on how hard to push Beijing to make good on its pledge to allow direct elections in the former British colony.
Presently, only half of the 60-seat legislature is elected, and the territory’s top leader, or chief executive, is chosen by an 800-strong committee full of Beijing loyalists.
The opposition democrats have said the affluent city is mature enough now to choose its own government, and after failing to win approval for direct elections in 2007, had campaigned vigorously for 2012, including staging hunger strikes and mass protests.
Beijing has favoured a more gradual approach, in part because it is wary of demands for democracy spilling over into other parts of China where the civil and political freedoms enjoyed in Hong Kong are absent.
Setting a timetable for universal suffrage showed Beijing had trust in Hong Kong’s people and would allow the bustling financial hub to focus on developing its economy, said Qiao Xiaoyang, a senior member of China’s parliament who flew to Hong Kong to explain the decision.
He said Hong Kong would be allowed to choose its leader through a direct election in 2017, and all its lawmakers after that, with 2020 the earliest date.
But opposition democrats said the decision was vague and could allow Beijing to influence elections from behind the scenes, for example, by instructing its allies to vote against certain electoral reforms in the legislature.
The decision stipulates that before 2017, changes to the electoral process must first win a two-thirds majority in the legislature, dominated by Beijing’s allies, and then be sent back to Beijing for approval.
“The central government seems to be advocating direct elections in 2017, but yet the details are unclear ... what if there is some interference from (Beijing) to veto demands for direct elections in the legislature,” Democrat Party chairman Albert Ho told supporters outside Hong Kong’s government headquarters late today.
Political analysts also noted that candidates contesting the leadership race may still need to be nominated by an electoral committee yet to be announced. The current committee that chooses the chief executive is stacked by Beijing’s allies.
“This is the first step toward full democracy for Hong Kong,” political analyst Li Pang-kwong from Lingnan University said.
“It will depend on how much the parties concerned are prepared to compromise to get this passed. They will need to show commitment and gain a consensus if we are to have direct elections in 2017.”
Earlier today, hundreds of people marched through central Hong Kong in protest, saying they had been cheated out of their right to full democracy. Holding banners that read “democracy delayed is democracy denied” they accused Beijing of failing to listen to the wishes of Hong Kong’s seven million people.
“We are extremely disappointed – you could say we are furious – about this decision in ruling out 2012,” the Democrat Party chairman Ho told Hong Kong government-run RTHK radio station. “The wishes of the Hong Kong people have been totally ignored.”
