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July 29, 2014

Occupy Central talks ended in deadlock

29-07-2014
The Chief Secretary, Carrie Lam, met the main organisers of Occupy Central for the first time to try to convince them to reconsider their plans to blockade the Central business district.Mrs Lam said she told them that the planned civil disobedience action would not yield any positive results, and they will not succeed in forcing Beijing's hand on political reform here.
Mrs Lam told reporters she "repeatedly and solemnly" urged the Occupy Central convenors to think twice about going ahead with their planned protest during their meeting, to no avail.
Speaking after the meeting with Mrs Lam, Occupy Central convenors said they are pushing full-steam ahead with their planned movement.
One of the organisers, Benny Tai, said he's disappointed that the Chief Secretary had failed to come up with any concrete plan to narrow the society's differences on political reform.
After the National People's Congress Standing Commtitee maps out Hong Kong's political future in August, the SAR government is then expected to launch a second round of public consultation on different reform options at the end of the year.
Professor Tai again stressed Occupy Central will only go ahead if the administration rules out any possibility of implementing universal suffrage in accordance with international standards.