Category Archives: Electoral Reform

Showdown in Hong Kong

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Zoher Abdoolcarim | 11 September 2014 | Time

Beijing must realize that the territory’s openness is what gives it real value to China

To China’s leaders, what’s different about Hong Kong is what makes it dangerous. Some local activists have called for the end to Communist Party rule of the mainland, making them, from Beijing’s standpoint, subversives. Beijing’s harder and more intimidating line toward Hong Kong reflects its harder and more intimidating line at home and toward much of the rest of the world. If powers like the U.S. and Russia are reluctant to challenge China, goes the thinking in Beijing, who is tiny Hong Kong to do so?

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China Restricts Voting Reforms for Hong Kong

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Chris Buckley and Michael Forsythe | 31 Aug 2014 | New York Times

HONG KONG — China’s legislature laid down strict limits on Sunday to proposed voting reforms in Hong Kong, pushing back against months of rallies calling for free, democratic elections.

Occupy Central says it will engage in nonviolent civil disobedience to avoid major disruption. Its organizers have said that they do not plan to plunge into mass protests immediately.

“We’re not making threats, we’re just sending warning signals,” said Mr. Tai, the group’s co-founder. “The house is on fire, something has to be done.”

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Northern California Hong Kong Club: Call on Pro-democracy Legco Member to Veto NPC Fake Democracy Proposal

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Issued on 31 August 2014

On Sept 1, NCHKC sent letters to the following US officials to urge them to speak out for Hong Kong people:

  • Vice President Joe Biden
  • Representative Nancy Peloci, House leader for Democrat,
  • Senator Sherrod Brown, Chairman of Congressional-Executive Commission on China
  • Representative Christopher Smith, Co-chairman of Congressional-Executive Commission on China

We salute the tremendous courage shown by the people of Hong Kong who will be starting a series of peaceful resistance actions in defiance of Beijing’s denial of their democratic rights.

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Benny Tai: The rationale of Occupy Central is the pursuit of justice

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Original published in Apple Daily on 26 August 2014: Read original
Translation on 28 August 2014

The real problem is not the alarm bell, but rather the fire.  It is still burning out there even without any alarm.  The loud alarm goes on just because of the fire, which is the root cause of the problem.  Those who ring the alarm bells, which are very loud indeed, are not trying to create disturbances but are actually trying to warn the occupants instead of fleeing himself.  What is really ridiculous is that the determination, courage and decisiveness are not used to put off the fire but rather used against the one who notices the fire and rings the alarm bells.  I could not help but ask: “What the heck is the rationale behind?”

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China Insists That Hong Kong Should Only Have Pro-Beijing Candidates — for National Security

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Oiwan Lam | 25 August 2014 | Global Voices Online

As pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong continue to push for a greater say in the election of the city’s leader, top officials in mainland China closed discussion on the matter, claiming any restrictions placed on the vote are done so for national security.

Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, is set to have its first direct vote of the city’s chief executive in 2017, but Beijing says a nominating committee must approve the candidates. Democracy advocates fear Hong Kong will only have pro-Beijing candidates to choose from, defeating the purpose of the election. 

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Threshold set for Occupy Central

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25 August 2014 | RTHK

Occupy Central organiser Benny Tai says his movement won’t carry out their full disobedience campaign if Beijing only rules out public nomination for the 2017 chief executive election.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress is expected to make a decision next Sunday. Occupy Central has said it will peacefully block Hong Kong’s business district if Beijing doesn’t offer democracy which meets international standards.

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Hong Kong political reform consultation was dominated by ‘orchestrated’ responses

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Calvin Liu, Brian Yap and Joyce Ng | 18 August 2014 | SCMP

The government’s consultation exercise on political reform was dominated by “orchestrated” bloc submissions, most of them favouring a conservative stance, a South China Morning Post study has revealed.

Summary:

  • More than 90% of 121,447 submissions to HK Gov electoral reform consultation were based on templates and submitted collectively by 822 groups- most of which were not named.
  • 80% of submissions to HK gov public consultation on electoral reform were made by unidentified groups using templates.
  • Pro-CCP DAB made 12.7% of submissions to HK gov electoral reform consultation, most nearly identical.
  • Unidentified groups & DAB are 92.7% of group submissions to HK consultation on electoral reform.

reform-graphic-0818

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The more you protest, the less Beijing will bend, democracy activists told

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Tony Cheung in Beijing, Peter So and Gary Cheung | 16 August 2014 | SCMP

The more Hong Kong activists talk about using civil disobedience to press Beijing to heed demands for greater democracy, the more it will stand firm on electoral reform, the city’s sole representative on the country’s top legislative body warned yesterday.

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai offered the warning as the body, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, began a week of deliberations to define the framework by which Hong Kong will elect its next leader in 2017.

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Occupy Central ready to launch civil disobedience

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14 August 2014 | EJ Insight

Occupy Central is set to launch civil disobedience in Hong Kong as soon as the National People’s Congress (NPC) approves an election reform package that fails to meet its expectations, Ming Pao Daily reported Thursday.

China’s legislature is expected to announce its decision in the last week of August during its annual session.

 

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