With the action by the National People's Congress Standing Committee at the end of last month, the long-running saga of political reform for the 2012 elections finally drew to a close. The Standing Committee announced that it had 'approved' the amendment regarding the method to elect the chief executive, and 'recorded' the amendment on the formation of the Legislative Council.
Those are the words used in the Basic Law, which differentiated between moves to change the method of election of the chief executive and of the legislature, seemingly saying that Hong Kong could make decisions on its own about the way the legislature is to be elected, with such decisions merely reported to the Standing Committee 'for the record'.
However, the rules have been changed since April 2004, when the Standing Committee issued an interpretation of the Basic Law. Beijing made clear it would not automatically 'record' whatever decision was made in Hong Kong. At that point, the words 'approve' and 'record' lost any distinction they may previously have had.
The Standing Committee took away from Hong Kong the autonomy given by the Basic Law to decide on the pace of democratisation where Legco was concerned. It also took away the right to initiate proceedings leading to universal suffrage elections for chief executive; instead, it ruled that Beijing had to decide if there was a 'need' for change. The new five-step procedure, beginning with the Standing Committee granting permission to initiate a process for change and ending with its approval of the change, means Beijing now controls the process from beginning to end.
With this change, the Hong Kong legislature's role was limited to approving by a two-thirds majority - or blocking with more than one-third of the vote - whatever change is proposed by the chief executive. Clearly, simply playing by Beijing's rules is not going to result in genuine democracy, as it is understood in the rest of the world.
In a Legco where half the seats are required to be functional constituency seats, the two-thirds majority requirement means the functional seats can never be abolished, since those members will not commit collective suicide and vote themselves out of office.
Pan-democrats generally take the practical position that if China decided to abolish functional constituencies, these legislators would toe the line. Democrats can only pressure Beijing to change the rules, rather than try to lobby for the support of functional legislators.