Beijing 'set to take hard line on Hong Kong's 2017 chief executive election'

Prospects for consensus on political reform look increasingly gloomy after Beijing-friendly figures lined up to convey a message that the nation's top legislature will set a conservative tone for the 2017 chief executive election.

Executive councillors Cheng Yiu-tong and Bernard Chan said on Tuesday that they expected the National People's Congress Standing Committee to require chief executive candidates to obtain support from at least half the nominating committee.

On the same day, NPC deputy David Wong Yau-kar and Basic Law Committee member Johnny Mok Shu-luen said such a requirement for aspiring chief executive candidates would be reasonable.

A source familiar with the situation said those remarks underlined the central government's concern about ensuring national security as Hong Kong moved towards universal suffrage.

"Beijing's top priority is to prevent people who confront it or even call for toppling the Communist Party from being elected chief executive. Hongkongers may not be able to comprehend this kind of consideration," the source said.

The source, who has knowledge of Beijing's thinking on Hong Kong, said the leadership could not take chances for the 2017 election, the city's first "one-person, one-vote" poll for the top job.

"The electoral system could only be relaxed, rather than tightened, in subsequent elections. That's why the central government would like to play safe in the 2017 chief executive election," the source said.