No chance Beijing will reform Hong Kong electoral framework in next five years, Rita Fan says

City’s sole rep to national legislature urges pan-democrats to be practical

Reading Time:2 minutes

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai said one step forward was always better than being rooted at the same spot. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 10:21pm, 3 May 2017Updated: 8:50am, 4 May 2017

One of Hong Kong’s leading pro-Beijing figures, Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, has ruled out any chance of the central government amending the rigid framework it has set for reforming the city’s electoral system in the next five years.

The former Legislative Council president on Wednesday advised opposition pan-democratic politicians demanding a new framework to stop insisting on revising or scrapping it.

Beijing’s conditions for electing Hong Kong’s leader, laid down on August 31, 2014, by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, were rejected as too restrictive and undemocratic by opposition lawmakers. It triggered the Occupy protests and the entire process was shelved.

Fan, the city’s sole representative on the NPC Standing Committee, said there were no voices in China’s top legislature calling for an amendment or abolition of the controversial framework, and it would remain unchanged in the next five years.

She was speaking after the legal chief of Beijing’s liaison office, Wang Zhenmin, said recently that Hong Kong could not afford to pursue electoral reform aspirations in the coming five to 10 years.

Fan said the ball was in the pan-democrats’ court, suggesting that the only way to revive the reform process was for the pan-democrats to accept the framework they rejected; otherwise it would be a waste of time.