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August 31, 2014

Hong Kong Prepares for Decision on Election Rules

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/sinosphere/2014/08/29/hong-kong-prepares-for-decision-on-election-rules/

Edward Chin, center, organizer of Financial Professionals for Occupy Central, and Benny Tai, right, co-founder of Occupy Central, at a rally Friday night outside government offices in Hong Kong.

ALEX OGLE / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

By ALAN WONG

AUGUST 29, 2014

The countdown to Beijing’s decision on how Hong Kong people will elect their next leader has not been short of drama.

In late June, the activist group Occupy Central With Love and Peace held anunofficial referendum, in which about 700,000 Hong Kong residents voted on proposals to allow the public to nominate candidates for the territory’s next leader, the chief executive. A pro-democracy marchwas held in early July, with near-record turnout. And this month a march to express opposition to the democracy movement was held, with about half the turnout but higher participation by mainland Chinese. The media tycoon Jimmy Lai, a staunch supporter of Occupy Central, was exposed as having made generous donations to the protest group’s main backers. On Thursday,Hong Kong’s anticorruption agency visited the homes of Mr. Lai, his aide and a legislator to investigate allegations of bribery.

All this leads to the decision scheduled for this weekend. Although China’s top legislative body has given Hong Kong the go-ahead to choose the chief executive by “one person, one vote” as soon as 2017, it will announce on Sunday the framework for that vote, whether the candidates will be vetted by a nominating committee, and to what extent such vetting might take place. The decision will affect the territory’s stability and governance for years to come.

An election plan will then be drawn up by the Hong Kong government, based on Beijing’s decision on Sunday and after local consultation. A band of local legislators has pledged to veto any plan that does not meet its definition of a fair and open election. Failure to change how the chief executive is chosen — it is currently done by a 1,200-member committee — could fuel public resentment of the government.

More immediately, union leaders of university and high school students are calling for a strike if the decision does not allow the public to nominate candidates. Occupy Central, a broad coalition of politicians, religious leaders and students, also plans to blockade Hong Kong’s Central business district if the decision by Beijing imposes overly rigid limits on who can run for the top job. And the group’s leaders say this protest would not be a one-off affair.

On Friday evening, the group gathered outside what it calls “The Wall” — a fence, about seven feet high, that was erected around the entrance to the Central Government Offices in Central — to protest “Communist China’s premature moves to tighten the CE election criteria,” it said, referring to Hong’s Kong’s chief executive. The fence was set up to bolster security after protesters stormed the entrance of the nearby building of the Legislative Council in June. The group has also called for a rally on Sunday evening, after the release of Beijing’s decision on the 2017 election, when it will announce its action plan.

Against this backdrop, some saw the investigation of Mr. Lai, his aide Mark Simon and Lee Cheuk-yan, the Labor Party legislator who received a donation from Mr. Lai in 2013, as politically timed.

In an article posted Thursday evening on the website of Apple Daily, Mr. Lai’s flagship publication, the “management” of his media group, Next Media, was quoted as saying, “On the eve of Occupy Central, white terror!” Mr. Lai commented that “there is never a free lunch in this world. This is expected,” adding that there is always a price to pay for standing up for one’s view.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption said that Thursday’s “operation was launched in view of the progress and the need of the investigation.”

Regina Ip, leader of the pro-establishment New People’s Party, said that many members of the Legislative Council, herself included, had been called in by the anticorruption commission for what often turned out to be minor infractions caused by errors in filling out forms. Ms. Ip said that if the lawmakers who received funds from Mr. Lai had underreported the amount, “it is only right that they should be investigated thoroughly.”

“I think we shouldn’t read too much into it and interpret it as political persecution,” Ms. Ip said in an interview.

In an article Mr. Lai wrote in Next Magazine, a publication owned by Next Media, he said that on July 1, the anniversary of the former British colony’s return to China rule, hackers stole documents from his company’s computer network and photocopiers, which were connected to the network.

A few weeks later, a person who identified himself as a shareholder of Next Media sent hundreds of these documents to Hong Kong newspapers. They suggested that several political parties and individuals received more than $1.3 million in donations last year through Mr. Lai’s top aide, Mr. Simon. Legislators from a pro-Beijing party later filed reports to the anticorruption commission calling for a formal investigation of the matter.

Michael Forsythe contributed reporting.

Marchers opposed to Occupy Central's pledge to stage sit-in protests if the new election rules do not permit an open choice for Hong Kong's next leader carried the Hong Kong and national Chinese flags on Aug. 17. 

VINCENT YU / ASSOCIATED PRESS