Chinese Ambassador to Britain Liu Xiaoming (劉曉明) yesterday warned of “chaos” in Hong Kong if pro-democracy campaigners go ahead with a plan to occupy the city center and dismissed their calls for the public to nominate candidates in leadership elections.
Discontent in Hong Kong is at its highest level in years over what is seen as increasing interference from China and Beijing’s insistence that it vet candidates before the vote for the city’s next chief executive in 2017.
Pro-democracy group Occupy Central has vowed to take over the central business district if the government does not allow electoral reform.
“If unsatisfied, they threaten to ‘Occupy Central’ and bring the Hong Kong economy into chaos,” Liu wrote in a comment piece in the Financial Times, published yesterday, in the latest push back against the pro-democracy movement by Beijing.
“Any attempt to destabilise Hong Kong through street politics will certainly not win the hearts and minds of Hong Kong’s people,” he wrote. “Recent developments in some countries manifest one simple truth: street politics will not bring democracy but incur turmoil and chaos.”
Beijing’s state-run media have called Occupy “illegal” and said it could damage the territory’s economy.
An informal democracy referendum in Hong Kong last month, which drew a massive turnout of almost 800,000 people, also angered Beijing.
It was followed by a major pro-democracy march on July 1 that organizers said was the biggest protest since the territory was handed back to China by Britain in 1997.
Beijing has promised to let Hong Kong residents vote for their next leader in 2017, but it says candidates must be approved by a nomination committee, which democracy advocates fear will mean only pro-Beijing figures are allowed to stand.
Activists have called for the vote to be conducted according to international standards, but Liu countered that.
“Electoral systems vary so, obviously, there is no ‘international standard’ to speak of,” he wrote.
He likened the patriotism that Beijing has said is required of any chief executive to the oath of office taken by US presidents.
Concerns over Beijing’s influence increased last month, when it published a controversial “white paper” on Hong Kong’s future that was widely seen as a warning to the city not to overstep its bounds.
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