Hong Kong reform framework is not forever, top Beijing official says, ahead of historic vote

Beijing’s restrictive blueprint for Hong Kong’s chief executive election in 2017 could be modified in future once implemented, a top central government official said, in a last-ditch effort to persuade pan-democrats to back the proposal.

The remarks by Wang Guangya, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, came two weeks after Basic Law Committee chairman Li Fei told lawmakers in Shenzhen that the framework, which stipulates only two or three candidates who secure majority support of a 1,200-strong committee can run for the city’s top job, would be valid for the long term.

“Claiming ‘pocketing [the proposal] would pocket it for good’ is a distorted and misleading argument,” Wang told Beijing mouthpieces Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao, as reported on the newspapers’ front pages today. “The relevant central government officials have never said something like this.”

Wang said the framework, rolled out by the standing committee of the National People’s Congress in August, which he described as “democratic”, “open” and “fair”, would be applicable beyond 2017 if no amendment was made according to the required procedure.

But he clarified that no legal system would stay unchanged forever and would be revised as the city proceeds. The electoral model could still be modified in future depending on Hong Kong’s social development and the situation after implementing the current system, he added.