Pan-democrats fear party screening after Shenzhen meeting

Defeated pan-democratic chief-executive candidate Albert Ho Chun-yan, along with the pro-democracy camp, slammed Beijing for "screening out" from ruling the city those whom they consider as "confronting the central government".

The barrage of criticism came after National People's Congress Law Committee chairman Qiao Xiaoyang was cited by a lawmaker who attended yesterday's closed-door meeting in Shenzhen. It was reported that Qiao said those who called for overthrowing the Communist Party could be seen as confrontational and could not become the chief executive. Qiao also cited an article of Ho's as an example, the source said.

"If he said I called for ending one-party dictatorship, to put it simply, how is it related to patriotism? You can just at best say I don't love the Communist Party," said Democratic Party lawmaker Ho.

"Since I love the nation, I don't want to see one-party dictatorship. He actually equalised the party and the nation, or put the party above the nation."

Ho said it seemed that it was "totally up to Qiao" to define what "confronting the central government" meant.

Civic Party chairwoman Audrey Eu Yuet-mee, who is seen as a potential candidate for the 2017 chief-executive poll, said Qiao implied that Beijing was "cheating" Hongkongers.