The expatriate community in Hong Kong has, on the whole, welcomed the constitutional reform package and is happy to see it passed in the Legislative Council.
This group of residents was largely brought up in a democratic environment and they are all for the early implementation of universal suffrage. But, at the same time, they make their living here and certainly don't want any trouble. Moving smoothly forward under a compromise deal is therefore the best outcome.
However, the outcome did come as a surprise as nearly everybody had given up hope and was expecting a deadlock.
Looking back now, this was just the natural course of serious negotiations. In all such talks, both sides want to gain the most, and therefore drive a hard bargain. The sweet spot is reached when neither side can yield any further, negotiations are about to break down, and one last attempt to reach an agreement dramatically produces a win-win solution.
This is exactly what happened in the haggling between the Democratic Party and the central government. The official package announced on April 14 was the first offer. The textbook response from the Democrats was to flatly reject it, calling it a backward move.
It then returned with a three-point counterproposal and announced it to the public. After the Democratic Party and the central government's liaison office finally met on May 24, and it became clear that the democrats' counter-offer would be rejected, the negotiations broke off, and both sides announced that a compromise solution was unlikely.
Middlemen then came onto the stage to explain to the central government that the Democratic Party could not concede any further and that this was indeed its final offer. The central government ultimately struck the deal when it received confirmation that the Democrats had agreed to cast their votes in favour of the modified package.
