Catch-22 situation looms over election for chief executive in 2017
Opponents of Beijing cannot be chief executive, but anyone legally qualified can run, says Li Fei
Beijing's top Basic Law specialist says Hong Kong faces a dilemma: it cannot elect a chief executive opposed to Beijing, nor can legally qualified candidates be barred from running when the city chooses its leader by one-person, one-vote in 2017.
Li Fei offered no pointers on how the Hong Kong government could square the two goals when he met officials and lawmakers at a Government House lunch. Instead, he warned that introducing universal suffrage without "taking objective conditions into account" risked plunging the city into chaos.
Li, chairman of the Basic Law Committee, was expected to go some way toward setting a framework for the public consultation on electoral reform at the lunch, the centrepiece of a three-day visit that ends today.
But he stuck largely to reiterating legal points. He spoke of the Basic Law requirement that a "broadly representative" nominating committee be formed to put forward candidates. He did not directly address the pan-democrat demand that the public get to nominate candidates.
"All social classes and sectors [should] have a say in the nomination process," Li said.
But Li said the mini-constitution also provided for anyone fitting legal requirements relating to age and residency to run for chief executive.
In comments pan-democrats said raised the prospect of "screening", Li said: "The chief executive is accountable to the central government as well as Hong Kong. This means that the post must be taken up by a person who loves the country as well as Hong Kong - anyone opposed to the central government cannot [take it]."