Source:
https://scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1314184/absolutist-pan-democrats-risk-another-npc-interpretation
Comment/ Opinion

Absolutist pan-democrats risk another NPC interpretation

Benny Tai Yiu-ting.

The idea of opening the chief executive nomination to every voter sounds great on paper. Another is to let everyone have a say in designing Hong Kong's future democratic system.

The first idea is advocated by Scholarism led by teenagers; the second by legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting. If these are the ends they seek, occupying Central - or at least the threat of doing it - is the means. Many people support them without realising such efforts are counterproductive. These activists believe, mistakenly, that they can exert enough pressure on Beijing to agree to an idealised democracy that they claim would meet international standards such as those set forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In reality, they are no more than irritants to the central government. Beijing is the only one who holds the Sword of Damocles. Specifically, it is the ever-present possibility of an interpretation of the Basic Law relevant to universal suffrage by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.