Pro-democracy activists vowed yesterday to bring Hong Kong to a standstill after China’s parliament ruled that residents of the former British colony will not be permitted to freely choose their leader in an election set for 2017.
The standing committee of the National People’s Congress, which has the final say on democratic issues in Hong Kong, said that only two or three candidates will run in the contest, and must be endorsed by a nominating committee, likely to be loyal to Beijing.
“This is a legal, fair and reasonable decision. It is a dignified, prudent decision, and its legal effect is beyond doubt,” said Li Fei, of the NPC standing committee.
Activists immediately prepared to launch a campaign of civil disobedience which they said would climax with a blockade of the city’s financial district, Central — home of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the vital banking sector.
“Today is not only the darkest day in the history of Hong Kong’s democratic development, today is also the darkest day of one country, two systems,” said Benny Tai, a law professor and one of the leaders of the Occupy Central protest group.
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“One country, two systems” was the formula under which Hong Kong, with a population of more than seven million, was returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, after more than 150 years of British colonial rule.
Occupy Central is demanding that Beijing allows a free election for the city’s chief executive, hand-picked by China’s communist rulers since 1997. The movement said that “all chances of dialogue have been exhausted and the occupation of Central will definitely happen”. It gave no timings for its campaign.
Since Hong Kong’s return to Chinese rule, democratic reform has been a contentious issue, and the NPC’s decision on the 2017 election resulted in people gathering outside Hong Kong government headquarters to chant slogans.
“It [the NPC decision] leaves no room for us to fight for a genuinely democratic system, and we will begin our campaign for peaceful, non-violent struggle,” said Joseph Cheng, the convenor of the Alliance for True Democracy, a coalition of groups advocating universal suffrage in Hong Kong. “We want to tell the world we haven’t given up.”
The NPC decision appears to be a breakthrough for Beijing as it endorses the framework for a direct vote by a Chinese city for the first time, allowing China’s government to claim it as a milestone in democratic reform.
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By placing strict limitations on the nomination process, however, it provides justification for the city’s democratic activists to brand it a “fake” democracy.
Chinese officials have branded activists’ protests “illegal”, and the Communist party’s newspaper, The People’s Daily, warned against “foreign meddling” in the city’s politics.
Prominent critics of Beijing, notably Jimmy Lai, owner of the popular Apple Daily, have come under pressure in recent days.
His home was searched by anti-corruption police amid allegations of bribery in what his son, Mark Simon, said was a “wonderful diversion” from the NPC decision.