Legco president and pro-establishment lawmaker Jasper Tsang Yok-sing on Wednesday disputed allegations that foreign forces were behind Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests, contradicting claims by the city’s leader and Beijing. Jasper Tsang Yok-sing said he did not believe foreigners were a driving force behind a month of rallies and roadblocks calling for full democracy in the city “I can’t see it happening,” he said in an interview with Cable TV. “Unless you treat foreign diplomats expressing concerns as an intervention by external forces. I think their concerns, raised objectively, were not intended to influence, dominate or instigate any side,” he said. Parts of the city have been paralysed by the protests calling on Beijing to rescind its insistence that candidates for the city’s next leader be vetted by a loyalist committee before standing for election in 2017. READ MORE: To view all the latest Occupy Central stories click here Beijing has refused to back down over what has become the most serious challenge to Chinese rulers since the crackdown on a pro-democracy movement in 1989 in Beijing. Embattled Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said earlier this month that “external forces” from other countries had been encouraging the mass sit-ins, but refused to identify them. “I shan’t go into details, but this is not entirely a domestic movement,” he said during a television interview. Commentaries in the mainland have also increasingly described the Hong Kong protests as a “colour revolution” – a term used by Beijing for political movements funded by international forces. Protesters have strongly denied allegations they are foreign-controlled and say the demonstrations are motivated by a lack of political progress and growing anger at increasing inequality.
