City Beat | Another rabid editorial - but is it really from Beijing?
When CY dismissed a Global Times column, it showed just how little influence the paper has
If Hongkongers had ever taken seriously comments on the city in the fiercely nationalistic state-run Global Times newspaper - assuming they represent the views of Beijing's policymakers - now is the time to think twice before reading too much into them.
It seems Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying thinks so, at any rate. Last week he voiced his disagreement with a strongly worded editorial in the newspaper, which dismissed Occupy Central's so-called referendum on electoral reform options for the 2017 chief executive poll as an "illegal farce". The editorial declared that no matter how high the turnout rate, it was "no match" for the mainland population of 1.3 billion.
By the time the poll ended last night, 787,767 people had voted, organisers said.
Leung told reporters last Tuesday it was wrong to "put the people of Hong Kong and mainland China on confronting sides". He added that those who had voted merely wanted to express their hope for universal suffrage in 2017 - a hope shared by him and the governments of Hong Kong and Beijing.
But the pan-democrats were unimpressed, saying it was just Leung trying to defuse the situation ahead of tomorrow's pro-democracy march.
A government source, however, said Leung felt compelled to speak out because he thought the editorial was wrong, since Hongkongers are part of the 1.3 billion Chinese population, and because of simmering tensions between the city and the mainland.
But if Leung was trying to ease the situation, it may have backfired. While the Global Times declined to comment on Leung's remarks, internet users on the mainland were more vociferous, with some attacking the chief executive for trying to please only Hongkongers.