Dialogue with Beijing key to solve Hong Kong’s ongoing crisis, tycoon Lau Ming-wai says
- Unrest cannot be resolved only by talks between local people and the city’s government, Youth Development Commission vice-chairman says
- But Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau says Beijing’s loyalists in Hong Kong do not want a dialogue to happen
Beijing should talk to the people of Hong Kong on the current unrest and the way ahead, the deputy head of the city’s youth advisory board said on Wednesday.
Tycoon Lau Ming-wai, the vice-chairman of the Youth Development Commission, the city’s semi-official body on youth policy, said the ongoing unrest could not be resolved just by talks between the local people and the city’s government, even though citizens aired their grievances against the local administration.
“This dialogue and feedback should include the state,” Lau said in an interview with Democratic Party’s former chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing.
Lau Ming-wai said there had virtually been no meaningful dialogue between Hong Kong and Beijing over the past few years.
“Over the past few years, has there been any frank or closed-door dialogue between society and the government, be it the Hong Kong or the central government? There has to be discussion if we want to live a happy and peaceful life from now until 2047,” he said, referring to Beijing’s promise that the city’s way of living would remain unchanged for 50 years from 1997.
