Less than half of Hong Kong’s residents back electoral reforms that would see a pro-China nominating committee select candidates for the next leader in 2017, results of a survey suggested, after protests demanding open nominations crippled parts of the territory last year.
Only 47 percent of the 1,167 people surveyed were in favor of the proposal, which outlines a two-step process for the territory’s 1,200-strong nominating committee to select two or three candidates for chief executive ahead of a public vote.
The Chinese National People’s Congress in August last year said it would screen candidates who want to run in the 2017 election for chief executive. Democracy activists said this rendered the notion of universal suffrage meaningless.
It was the first public opinion survey since Hong Kong officials published their electoral blueprint last week, and comes ahead of a vote on the controversial proposal by lawmakers in early summer.
The Hong Kong government has forged ahead with the Chinese plan. Pan-democratic lawmakers hold a veto majority in the Legislative Council and have vowed to vote it down.
Government officials have said a veto would have dire consequences for the territory’s political development.
Hong Kong’s first chief executive under Chinese rule, Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), who has close ties to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), told reporters that the government’s proposal was a big step forward.
“At this stage there is no compromise. There is yes or no, take it or don’t take it,” Tung said. “I and many others will do our level best to make sure this is passed.”
Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed said they were against the proposal and 16 percent were undecided, according to the survey, which was sponsored by NOW TV and conducted by three Hong Kong universities.
The proposal was least popular among better-educated young people. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed with a college education or above were against the proposal, while 63 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 29 were against it.
Students led tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters into the streets last summer, shutting down major roads in Hong Kong for two-and-a-half months. The protesters demanded open nominations in addition to a vote.
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in
STILL IN POWER: US intelligence reports showed that the Iranian regime is not in danger of collapse and retains control of the public, casting doubt on Trump’s exit Nearly every US Senate Democrat on Wednesday signed a letter sent to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth requesting a “swift investigation” of airstrikes on a girls’ school in Iran that killed scores of children and any other potential US military actions causing civilian harm. Reuters reported on Thursday last week that US military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the Feb. 28 strike on the school, as US and Israeli forces launched attacks on Iran. “The results of this school attack are horrific. The majority of those killed in the strikes were girls between the ages
RSS