Top Chinese law scholar rules out any public nomination of chief executive candidates
Carrie Lam says Rao Geping's comment on chief executive poll sets a definitive tone
A top Beijing legal scholar and the chief secretary yesterday presented a united front in ruling out even a watered-down form of public nomination for the chief executive poll in 2017.
Rao Geping, a member of the Basic Law Committee and a law professor at Peking University, and Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor were speaking at a high-powered gathering of more than 300 top officials, lawmakers and leaders to discuss the city's constitutional future.
Rao explicitly ruled out any idea that would allow voters to put forward chief executive candidates - including a diluted version previously proposed by a Beijing loyalist legal scholar.
He also said that the requirement that any candidate for the top job "love the country and love Hong Kong" was more than just political - it was inherent in the Basic Law.
In a rare public appearance, former finance chief Antony Leung Kam-chung told the seminar that "Hong Kong will move backwards" if the pan-democrats do not compromise to break the deadlock over universal suffrage. Leung, tipped as a possible chief executive candidate, would not be drawn on whether he would join the race in 2017.
Although Rao stressed that he had been stating his personal views, the chief secretary, speaking after the seminar, said his comments set a definitive tone.