Group to forge 2017 consensus
Anson Chan setting up Hong Kong 2020 body to produce plan for universal suffrage that will be acceptable to Beijing and the business sector
Former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang will launch a group next week to devise a universal suffrage plan that will pass muster with both Beijing and the business sector.
The group will open an office from where its members will lobby for support - particularly from the business sector, whose backing will be critical to achieving full democracy.
It is understood that the group will likely be launched next Wednesday and former Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Wing-tat will be in charge of the office.
"I will take part in Mrs Chan's group and become a member. But you better ask her about further details," Lee said.
Tentatively named Hong Kong 2020, the group has been modelled on the Citizens' Commission on Constitutional Development, which Chan founded in 2008 to facilitate public discussion on political reform.
Chan's contribution to the heated universal suffrage debate has, to date, been conciliatory and pragmatic.
At a seminar early this month, she said it was reasonable for Beijing to expect Hong Kong's chief executive to refrain from challenging China's one-party rule.
