Hong Kong pan-democrat Ronny Tong considers future with moderates

Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah tried to consolidate "moderate power" in Hong Kong politics yesterday by convening a first meeting to explore how the city should proceed if political reform proposals are blocked.

The meeting led by Tong came as the government is set to announce details of its proposal as early as Wednesday.

Pan-democrat lawmakers have vowed to vote down the proposal if it follows Beijing's restrictive framework, which stipulates that only two or three candidates who secure majority support from a 1,200-strong nomination committee can run for chief executive.

But Tong said the political reform was not on the agenda for the moderates, who might later create a think tank. "Even lawmakers would hold different views regarding [Beijing's August 2014] framework. Perhaps political reform might not be [the topic] that we could have the most efficient discussion on," the barrister said after the 31/2-hour meeting at City University.

Instead, the proposed think tank hoped to look into a way out for Hong Kong in the post-reform era, said Tong, as he believed the failure of political reform would leave a scar on the city and thus undermine the implementation of "one country, two systems".

"There might be no basis of trust between [Beijing and pan-democrats when the reform fails] and their relationship might hit a new low … Beijing might then believe it has to tighten its grip on Hong Kong," he said.