HONG KONG: Beijing is likely to hint at the possibility of giving full democracy to Hong Kong by 2017 to win over pro-democracy lawmakers opposed to the city government's election reform proposals, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Citing an unidentified source close to Beijing, the South China Morning Post said the hint would come from a Chinese state leader in a vaguely worded statement.
"The central government may hint in vague and indirect wording that there could be a possibility of reaching full democracy by 2017," the newspaper quoted the source as saying.
The report that Beijing was planning the rare overture comes after tens of thousands marched in Hong Kong on Sunday demanding a timetable for direct elections.
China's official news agency, Xinhua, quoted an unidentified official with the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong as saying the report was rumour. Pro-democracy lawmaker Ronny Tong said a Chinese contact had suggested to him that China might make a vague statement that it respected the views of the Hong Kong people and would implement universal suffrage once there was consensus on the issue.
Mr Tong, of the Article 45 Concern Group, said the contact had come back a few days later to ask if 2017 would be an acceptable date for full democracy.
"I said that would not be acceptable," he said. "The date is too far ahead."