Updated Aug. 31, 2014 8:16 p.m. ET
China's government ruled that candidates for Hong Kong's top leadership post must be approved by a committee heavily loyal to Beijing, providing a clear demarcation of how far it will allow democracy to proceed in the territory.
The decree capped months of blunt reminders from Beijing of who is in charge in the former British colony, and quickly drew ire from pro-democracy voices in Hong Kong, who have threatened a mass civil-disobedience campaign if they aren't offered "genuine choice" in 2017 elections.
"Hong Kong people have the reason to believe they have been betrayed," said Alan Leong, a Hong Kong pro-democracy legislator. "We cannot be the boss, we cannot have genuine choice," he said. Another lawmaker, Lee Cheuk Yan, said the fight for "true democracy" would continue.
Democracy activists in Hong Kong gathered Sunday evening outside the city's government headquarters, where police beefed up security and erected barricades. In pouring rain, hundreds of people sat banging pots and plastic containers and cheered the speakers. Benny Tai, one of the organizers of Occupy Central, said, "Hong Kong is now entering a new era—a new era of resistance."
Several in the crowd said they weren't surprised by the decision. "I knew it wasn't possible for Beijing to grant Hong Kong democracy, but I still have to fight," said 80-year-old Ng Hung. "I am here for the next generation."
The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's largely ceremonial parliament, said future chief-executive candidates will be nominated by a "broadly representative" committee.
Candidates will need to secure support from at least 50% of members on a nominating committee, and their numbers will be capped in any given race at two or three candidates. Currently, the chief executive is appointed by the central government via a 1,200-member committee heavy on Beijing backers as well as business leaders. Candidates have until now needed to get support from just one-eighth of the panel, which in 2012 allowed a pro-democracy legislator to run as one of three candidates.
"Since the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong and the sovereignty, security and development interests of the country are at stake, there is a need to proceed in a prudent and steady manner," Beijing said in its ruling Sunday.
The committee again emphasized that potential candidates must be "patriotic" and "love the country and love Hong Kong," though it left unclear how that would be determined.
The electoral-reform plan must secure the backing of Hong Kong's legislative council to proceed. With just over a third of 70 seats, Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers have veto power over the decision.
Mainland officials had lobbied heavily to sway pro-democracy voices to support the plan even without the direct-nomination provision.
China's government has for years been contending with a democracy campaign in Hong Kong, a major international financial center. It has counted on support from Hong Kong's business elites and what local media have sometimes called a silent majority of locals more interested in steadily rising living standards than politics.
Democracy advocates, however, say Beijing has been infringing on the autonomy it guaranteed the territory under the "one country, two systems" policy and have decried growing inequality and rising prices. They say universal suffrage—a one-person-one-vote system—would make the local government more responsive to the public.
Sunday's announcement, the details of which had been well-telegraphed by Chinese officials in recent weeks, came in response to a report previously submitted by Hong Kong's government on electoral reform. Beijing had called universal suffrage the "ultimate aim" for Hong Kong as it took control of the territory in a 1997 handover from Britain.
Nevertheless, for large swaths of Hong Kong society, economic concerns trump political considerations and Hong Kong residents are divided on the issue of street protests. According to a May survey by the University of Hong Kong, 56% of respondents said they were opposed to the Occupy Central movement, with 24% of respondents saying they approved of it.
Wong Shun-kwong, a 50-year-old chef, said he is more concerned about property prices, his job and retirement fund than about political freedom.
"With or without Occupy Central, my life is still the same, and the same goes for many people in Hong Kong," he said. "I think Beijing has already been very tolerant to people in Hong Kong, in a way that you can't find elsewhere in China."
Mr. Wong like others in the middle of the political spectrum hadn't demanded or expected Beijing to allow direct nomination for the top leader—an unusual system in any democracy—but some have expressed disappointment that any candidate will now need at least 50% support from a nominating committee heavy on pro-Beijing members.
Beijing has made it clear that it believes pro-democracy activists are a minority and that most Hong Kong residents will ultimately be contented with democratic progress of some form, however limited.
A U.S. State Department official said it was watching developments in Hong Kong and that the U.S. believes the "legitimacy of the chief executive will be greatly enhanced if the promise of universal suffrage is fulfilled."
—Olivia Geng, Te-Ping Chen
and William Mauldin
contributed to this article.
Source: Top Stories - Google News - http://ift.tt/1qT6tac
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