Protest leaders in Hong Kong vowed to start an era of civil disobedience that may bring chaos to one of the world’s financial capitals after they accused China of betraying its promise to deliver greater democracy.
The activist group Occupy Central With Love and Peace said the time for negotiation had passed and it will carry out its threat to stage a mass occupation of Hong Kong’s financial district, without specifying a date.
China, which seven years ago promised Hong Kong a form of universal suffrage for the 2017 leadership election, instead approved a plan that would require candidates to be screened by a 1,200-member committee before voters get to cast their ballots.
“We are told Hong Kong people will have one man one vote, but Beijing will select all the candidates, of course puppets, for you,” Martin Lee, 76, founding chairman of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong, told thousands of demonstrators at a rally late yesterday outside the offices of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. “So what’s the difference of a rotten apple, a rotten orange and a rotten banana?”
China’s plan angered pro-democracy campaigners because it gives the government in Beijing an effective veto over anyone not viewed as friendly to the Communist Party. Division over universal suffrage threatens to boil over after a series of mass rallies in recent months both for and against action to oppose the framework.
Hopes ‘Dashed’
China’s decision “dashed the hopes” of even the most moderate pro-democracy advocates, Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a senior lecturer in politics at Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a phone interview. “It’s clear that Beijing won’t allow a pro-democratic candidate in universal suffrage,” he said.
The maximum number of contenders allowed to contest the poll will be set at two or three, according to the decision, a limit that has also upset pro-democracy activists.
“Today is the darkest day of the history of Hong Kong’s democratic development,” Benny Tai Yiu-ting, co-founder of Occupy Central With Love and Peace, told reporters yesterday. “I think now this is the end of any dialogue.”
Obedient citizens will now disobey orders as Hong Kong enters a new era, Tai told cheering supporters gathered amid drizzling rain at the rally late yesterday.
U.S. Responds
In Washington, the State Department expressed support for the demands of the protesters, saying the election’s legitimacy will be “greatly enhanced” if the people get “a genuine choice of candidates representative of the voters’ will.”
“The United States supports universal suffrage in Hong Kong,” a State Department official said in a statement. “We believe that an open society, with the highest possible degree of autonomy and governed by the rule of law, is essential for Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. will continue to monitor the process, which hasn’t yet reached a final decision.
Leung, Hong Kong’s current leader, who was selected by a committee, urged protesters to be peaceful and law-abiding and called the development a milestone for Hong Kong and China.
“We cannot afford to stand still on our constitutional development, or else the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong will be at stake,” he told reporters.
Second Consultation
Leung pledged to hold a second public consultation before introducing a bill to the city’s legislature early next year. He acknowledged it will be difficult to approve the law.
Some pro-democracy Hong Kong lawmakers, including the Civic Party’s Ronny Tong, said the proposal would be rejected. To become law, the universal suffrage bill will require two-thirds of Hong Kong’s 70-member legislature to support it, meaning the legislation could be halted by the 27 opposition members.
“The pan-democratic camp won’t negotiate,” Tong told Hong Kong Cable TV. “A negotiation could send the wrong signal to Beijing that the democrats are willing to accept an election with pre-screening.”
The draft framework approved by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress “made a mockery of the public consultation process,” according to a statement from Hong Kong 2020, a group founded by the city’s former No. 2 official, Anson Chan. If the proposal is rejected, Hong Kong will continue to have its leader picked by a 1,200-member election committee.
‘Broadly Representative’
The NPC decision states that the nominating committee will be “broadly representative” and its composition will follow that of the 2012 Election Committee that selected Hong Kong’s current leader, a body that pro-democrats criticized as being stacked with Hong Kong’s business and political elite.
Public nomination of candidates -- a demand of some groups -- was also rejected as being against the city’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, Li Fei, the NPC’s deputy secretary-general, said at a briefing in Beijing yesterday.
The legislation was a democratic development and some opponents failed to recognize the central government’s governance rights in Hong Kong, Li said. The city reverted to China from British rule in 1997.
“The development chances that Hong Kong may miss because of this will not come back again,” Li said, referring to the possible rejection of the plan.
The Federation of Hong Kong Industries and Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce welcomed the NPC’s decision, echoing earlier warnings from tycoons and business groups that protests will damage the city’s reputation as a financial center. An illegal occupation of the central district will “rock international confidence in Hong Kong’s stability,” Pang Yiu-kai, the chamber’s chairman, said in a statement.
Protesters Chant
School students and grandmothers were among those who gathered at the rally late yesterday and sat on the grass to loudly beat dishes and plates, while chanting slogans including “fight for democracy,” “disobey orders,” and “never lower our heads.” Organizers said 5,000 people turned out, while police put the number at 2,640.
“We want to tell the world that we will never give up our fight,” said Joseph Cheng, one of the event’s organizers.
After the rally finished at 9 p.m. local time, hundreds of people marched toward a hotel where NPC official Li is scheduled to stay. Some skirmished with police officers en route.
“I’m here to support these students because they are the future,” said one of the marchers, Liu Shaoying, a 70-year-old grandmother. China’s government has “lied to us for 30-odd years and I don’t think I will have another 30,” she said.
Mass Protests
“I don’t know if Beijing will change their minds, but we have to take action,” said another protester, Philip Yeung, a 16-year-old secondary school student.
Li arrived at the airport from Beijing shortly before midnight, telling reporters he would help people understand the decision at a series of events being held today.
“Beijing officials have previously talked with pan-democrats but that’s a show of good-will and public gesture,” said Ding Xueliang, a professor of Political Science at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “But Beijing would not make a compromise. What if Shenzhen, which is not far away from Hong Kong, also asked for the same thing?” he added, referring to a Chinese city just to the north.
To contact the reporters on this story: Fion Li in Hong Kong at fli59@bloomberg.net; Jill Mao in Hong Kong at mmao14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net Maura Reynolds, Laurence Arnold
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