Lawmakers invited to Shenzhen for last-minute talks on 2017 election reform

All 70 lawmakers have been invited to meet senior Beijing officials in Shenzhen next Thursday in a last-ditch effort to narrow the gap on attitudes to reform for the 2017 chief executive election.

Basic Law Committee chairman Li Fei would be at the meeting, said Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. A government source said Wang Guangya , director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, and the head of the central government's liaison office, Zhang Xiaoming , would also attend.

It is understood that Li will remain in Shenzhen the next day to meet some of the 1,193 members of the Election Committee that selected Leung as chief executive in 2012.

The announcement came as Zhang held the first of four meetings with pan-democratic lawmakers on reform before the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress rules on the issue at the end of the month. The talks also laid the framework for a second round of public consultation later this year.

"That [Shenzhen meeting] is another attempt really to listen to the Legco members' views on constitutional development," said Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who chaired yesterday's meeting.

She urged lawmakers to grasp the chance for dialogue with central government officials.