New pan-democratic foursome to act as camp's conduit sharing news about future talks with Beijing

Pan-democratic lawmakers have set up a four-member group to coordinate news within the camp about talks with Beijing, in a gesture to show they "embrace dialogue" despite mainland official Zhang Xiaoming's contentious remarks last week about the role of the chief executive.

Labour Party lawmaker Cyd Ho Sau-lan, one of the four, said the idea was to strengthen trust among pan-democrats - and not to penalise anyone for speaking to Beijing officials without notifying the group.

"This is only for internal communication," Ho said yesterday. "The group will not represent pan-democrats in meeting Beijing officials."

She indicated the camp remained open to dialogue after Zhang, director of Beijing's liaison office, declared on Saturday that Hong Kong's chief executive held a position of authority that transcended the executive, the judiciary and the legislature.

"Precisely because the central government's understanding of the 'one country, two systems' principle is different from Hongkongers', we need to hold calm and peaceful talks," Ho said.

The formation of the team also came after Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing and four party colleagues met Feng Wei, deputy director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, last month.

The meeting was seen as Beijing offering an olive branch to the camp, but some pan-democrats were upset they had no prior knowledge of the session.