Democrats cancel meeting with liaison office in protest at white paper
Party cancels meeting and says Hongkongers want Beijing to retract controversial document
The Democratic Party has cancelled a meeting with the central government's liaison office director Zhang Xiaoming in protest at Beijing's white paper on "one country, two systems" released on Tuesday.
The Democrats and the Labour Party indicated they would urge Beijing to retract the paper, as Hongkongers feared it would undermine the city's autonomy.
"[We] are very angry and disturbed by the 'white paper', which has sent a clear signal … that Beijing wants to backtrack on the high degree of autonomy promised to Hong Kong," Democrats chairman Emily Lau Wai-hing said. "We decided to suspend the meeting … as Hongkongers would like us to urge Beijing to retract the paper."
Democrat lawmakers were to meet Zhang (pictured) next month.
Separately, Labour Party chairman Lee Cheuk-yan said that unless Beijing retracted the white paper, it would be hard to hold talks on political reform.