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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

No Breakthrough in Dialogue Between Hong Kong Government, Students



Yes They Can!

  • Communist China continues to crack down on Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement.


Talks in Hong Kong between student representatives of a three-week-long mass pro-democracy movement and government officials ended on Tuesday with no sign of an end to the political stalemate or the Occupy Central campaign for universal suffrage.

Four black-clad student leaders faced off on live television with top officials of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory led by chief secretary Carrie Lam, watched in near-silence by crowds of protesters behind their barricades on the streets of Admiralty and Mong Kok.

Lam told the students that their demands for public nomination of candidates in the 2017 race for chief executive won't be met reports Radio Free Asia.

Hong Kong Rising

Riots, Unrest, and the Umbrella Movement




According to an Aug. 31 ruling by Beijing, Hong Kong's five million voters will each cast a ballot in 2017, but they will only be allowed to choose between candidates selected by a pro-Beijing committee.

Pan-democratic politicians and protesters of the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement have dismissed the reforms as "fake universal suffrage," because they make the selection of a pan-democratic candidate highly unlikely.

Lam said the students' call for public nominations would be unlikely to get through the territory's Legislative Council (LegCo), even if the government agreed to table such a proposal, because it would be voted down by pro-Beijing lawmakers.

But she told the students there is still room to tweak the selection committee, and room for further changes to the electoral system after the 2017 election produces a successor for embattled chief executive Leung Chun-ying.

"There is still ample room under the Aug. 31 decision to work out a nomination procedure and election method for 2017," Lam said in her concluding remarks. "This will be the goal for the second round of public consultation."

She said the 2017 framework "is not final," and invited students to help the government set up a platform for the airing of views on Hong Kong's long-term constitutional development beyond that date.

Lam rejected students' demands that the Hong Kong government refile a report to China's National People's Congress (NPC) standing committee, including widespread calls for universal suffrage from protesters and the 700,000 participants in a June online referendum, which were omitted from a July report.


"Obey your Communist Masters."


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