Occupy Central organisers want independent Hong Kong, People's Daily claims
The article in Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily said the demonstrators' slogan of "our fate should be decided by us" revealed the true intentions of the action's "organisers and controllers".
Occupy Central organisers were accused of plotting for an independent Hong Kong in a commentary published in state media yesterday.
The article penned by "He Yimin", in Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, said the demonstrators' slogan of "our fate should be decided by us" revealed the true intentions of the action's "organisers and controllers".
"What they want is not electoral democracy or the 'high-degree of autonomy' under 'one country [two systems]', rather, they want Hong Kong 'to act on her own', have 'self-determination' and to even be 'independent'," it said.
The commentary mentioned the chairman of Next Media, Jimmy Lai Chee-ying, and several other Occupy campaigners, accusing them of working with Taiwan's pro-independency activists to plan the Occupy movement.
Professor Dong Likun, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, a think tank under the State Council's Development Research Centre, echoed the commentary. Dong said the city's opposition politicians were pro-Washington or pro-London, and if any of their members were given executive power, they would lead Hong Kong away from the mainland, which could be viewed as pursuing independence.
"To topple the present Hong Kong SAR administration is not simply about removing Leung Chun-ying," Dong said, referring to the chief executive. "It is about the Occupy movement attempting to overturn an administration that is in alignment with the central government [in Beijing]."