Hong Kong's chief executive CY Leung held talks with leaders of the Umbrella Movement protests yesterday aimed at resolving the worst political crisis in the territory since it reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.
Tens of thousands of people have taken part in demonstrations over the past three weeks demanding full democracy. Beijing has ruled out direct elections in 2017 and insists that candidates be vetted by the ruling Communist Party.
Hundreds of protesters at the sites in Hong Kong watched the talks live on TV. Ahead of the talks, Mr Leung hinted that the panel which chooses the chief executive, currently a 1,200-strong nominating committee made up largely of business elites, could be made "more democratic".
“There’s room for discussion there,” he told reporters. “There’s room to make the nominating committee more democratic.”
Few expected a breakthrough during the talks. The protests are being watched closely as they present China with a challenge to see how it deals with calls for democracy in the semi-autonomous area.
During the debate, chief secretary Carrie Lam, the city's number 2 official, said political reform was "a complicated and sensitive topic. The society has very many different views. We cannot do things all over again because only one side of view objects to [Beijing's decision]."
Dominate elections
Mr Leung said that democratic elections were impossible in Hong Kong because if candidates were nominated by the public then poor people, the largest sector of society, would most likely dominate elections.
“If it’s entirely a numbers game and numeric representation, then obviously you’d be talking to the half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than US$1,800 (€1,405) a month,” Mr Leung said in an interview with overseas media.
Hong Kong has one of the biggest income gaps in the world, and there is growing unhappiness in the territory at rising property prices in particular.
Around one third of Hong Kong’s people live in public housing, and one in five lives below the poverty line.
Mr Leung's remarks will go down badly among protesters in Mong Kok in Kowloon, which is made up of mostly working class Hong Kong people angry at the rising cost of buying a home in Hong Kong, while the demonstrations in Central are mostly composed of students and white-collar workers.
He added that Hong Kong was “lucky” Beijing had not yet felt the need to intervene.
