Ruling allows Beijing to still control nomination process for city’s top leader
Daniel Wiser
The Washington Free Beacon
8/31/2014
China’s legislature on Sunday denied fully democratic elections to Hong Kong in a move that could spark mass protests in the city’s streets.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee ruled that nominees for Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017 would still have to obtain approval from 50 percent of a mostly pro-Beijing committee. The financial center’s pro-democracy movement had pushed for minimal involvement from China in both the nomination and election process.
One pro-democracy legislator in Hong Kong told the New York Times that the city’s residents feel “betrayed.”…
…Ellen Bork, director of democracy and human rights for the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI), previously told the Washington Free Beacon that the United States and other Western democracies should speak out in support of fully democratic elections in Hong Kong.
“The question is whether the real democracies are willing to stand up for Hong Kong’s people who have repeatedly and overwhelmingly showed they want to choose their own leaders, not be governed by Beijing’s proxies,” she said…
The complete article is at The Washington Free Beacon.
