DOW JONES NEWSWIRES7 NOV, 12:56 AMPOLITICS INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The political crisis that has gripped this city for weeks is unlikely to gain much attention in Beijing over the next week, even as Hong Kong's embattled chief executive joins world leaders at a global summit in the Chinese capital and pro-democracy protesters threaten to crash the party.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying will arrive in Beijing on Saturday for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, the city's information services department said Thursday. The APEC meetings began this week; a two-day leaders' summit expected to be attended by US President Barack Obama and other heads of state starts on Monday.
Mr Leung's problems in Hong Kong could follow him to Beijing. The Hong Kong Federation of Students, a group of university students leading a six-week-long protest that has paralyzed major roads in the city, have said they are planning to go to Beijing during the APEC meetings. The group has yet to specify the dates they would target and whom they would send, cautioning this week that they may choose to go to Beijing after the meeting concludes.
But any student effort to enter Beijing and target the summit faces long odds. Mainland officials have the right to deny the entry of Hong Kong citizens to mainland China and are unlikely to tolerate any sources of potential unrest during the APEC meetings. The summit is an important global forum for China, marking the first time the country has hosted the meeting in 13 years, and is the first major international conference held in Beijing since Chinese President Xi Jinping took power as Communist Party chief.
Even if students were allowed into Beijing during APEC, their presence would likely have little bearing on the summit's agenda. World leaders are expected to work solely on trade and economic issues.
"Traditionally, [APEC meetings] have been heavily focused on economics with almost no comments on anything else," said Michael DeGolyer, a professor of government at Hong Kong Baptist University. More likely to be under discussion are topics "naturally related" to the APEC forum, Mr DeGolyer said, such as China's push for a free-trade zone spanning the Pacific.
A person familiar with the thinking of the Chinese government this week said it was "not appropriate" to discuss the protests during the forum, even in an unofficial capacity. Hong Kong political reform is strictly a matter of Chinese internal affairs, the person said.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman on Wednesday deflected questions about the students' threat. "The central government firmly supports the Hong Kong government to push ahead the city's democratic development," said spokesman Hong Lei. "We hope different parties in Hong Kong could discuss the matter reasonably, build consensus and implement the election based on the laws."
The APEC forum is the second major political event in China over the past month after a four-day Communist Party summit concluded in late October. That has left protesters wondering if Hong Kong and China will take a harder stance on the protests once APEC concludes and finally force protesters off roads they are occupying.
So far, the government strategy has been to let the protests run their course, hoping fading public support will undo the demonstration without the need for physical force. Mr Xi is next expected to make a trip to the region in December, when he visits Macau in honor of the 15th anniversary of the territory's handover to mainland China.
Mr Leung's decision to attend the APEC meetings is a departure from earlier in his term, when he cancelled his trip to the 2012 summit held that year in Russia amid a growing political firestorm around the city's plan to roll out Chinese patriotism classes in public schools. The city's financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah attended in his place.
David Zweig, director of the Center on China's Transnational Relations at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said it is unlikely that other world leaders will discuss the protests with Mr Leung at the APEC summit.
"Maybe he will get shunned a little, which really does not help Hong Kong's international status," Mr Zweig said.
http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/11/7/international-news/hk-protests-far-apec-spotlight
