The more you protest, the less Beijing will bend, democracy activists told

The more Hong Kong activists talk about using civil disobedience to press Beijing to heed demands for greater democracy, the more it will stand firm on electoral reform, the city's sole representative on the country's top legislative body warned yesterday.

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai offered the warning as the body, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, began a week of deliberations to define the framework by which Hong Kong will elect its next leader in 2017.

Fan also issued her strongest criticism yet of the architect of the Occupy Central civil disobedience movement, describing Benny Tai Yiu-ting as "completely unacquainted" with how China works.

"The more [people] behaving or speaking like Tai, the more detailed the Standing Committee's decision will be and the less likely it will be that [the activists] achieve what they hope," Fan said. "Because if the central government softens [its stance], it would only encourage more threats and illegal acts."

She was referring to Occupy Central's plan to mobilise 10,000 people to block roads in the city's financial district if Beijing fails to allow universal suffrage compatible with what it says are international standards of democracy.

Tai responded that the main purpose of the campaign was not to threaten Beijing but to raise Hongkongers' awareness.

"The governance problems in Hong Kong will continue without a fair electoral system. What Beijing should do is to give Hongkongers genuine universal suffrage rather than suppressing the Occupy movement," Tai said.