NPC's law committee chief may clear up chief-executive screening row
Law Committee chairman expected to explain Basic Law statute in order to clear up raging debate on screening future chief executives
A top National People's Congress official is expected to explain a provision in the Basic Law in relation to universal suffrage, amid growing controversy over the possibility of a screening mechanism in choosing Hong Kong's chief executive.
Qiao Xiaoyang, the new chairman of the Law Committee under the NPC Standing Committee, is likely to touch on the issue during a Shenzhen seminar today, according to Tam Yiu-chung, chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, without elaborating.
Tam will attend the seminar along with 42 other pro-establishment lawmakers who set off for a study trip to Nansha in Guangzhou and Qianhai in Shenzhen yesterday.
After the seminar, Wang Guangya, director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, will host a lunch for them.
Some lawmakers said they believed the issue of a screening mechanism - which had sparked concerns that pan-democrats could be blocked from contesting the chief executive election - would be raised at the seminar.
"There are many people who interpret it differently. How should we deal with them?" legislator Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung said in Nansha. "If Qiao offers a clear explanation, it would be helpful for our understanding of the process for universal suffrage."