The central government hopes to turn Hong Kong’s pan-democrats into a “loyal opposition” after the city’s political reform proposal was voted down, the vice-president of a mainland Chinese think tank on Hong Kong said today. Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the National Association of Study on Hong Kong and Macau, said Beijing was seeking to improve ties with Hong Kong’s pan-democrats and looking for grounds to cooperate. He said a loyal opposition was allowed to have opposing views on many issues as long as it upholds some fundamental principles – such as the “one country, two systems” concept and the political structure it lays down, as well as the Communist Party’s rule in the country. READ MORE: Signs of a thaw? Hong Kong Democratic Party members hold behind-closed-doors talks with top Beijing official ”They can oppose many other issues. But they basically accept the current political structure. And they operate within the current structure to fight for reform,” Lau said during an RTHK talk show. One year after Beijing made its August 31 decision on the city’s political reform, Lau, also former head of the Central Policy Unit, said the central government had not changed its stance on hardliners among pan-democrats in the city. He quoted a speech by the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Wang Guangya before the political reform was voted down in Legco as saying the central government would only take on hardliners but seek cooperation with moderate pan-democrats. Last Wednesday, Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing and four other young leaders met Feng Wei, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office. Read more: Outgoing Hong Kong Legco chief warns 'one country, two systems' will fall apart if Beijing keeps on interfering The meeting was seen as a sign of Beijing offering an olive branch to the pan-democratic camp after the political reform was voted down. Lau said a key mainland official meeting the Democratic Party showed that the central government “at least does not see them as hardliners”. But he said now only few among the pan-democrats had the potential to become a “loyal opposition”. ”The central government hopes more people will move in this direction so that Beijing-Hong Kong relations can improve, the ‘one country, two systems’ model can run more smoothly and the overall political arena can improve,” he said. Speaking in response to Lau Siu-kai’s comments, Emily Lau said her party accepted that Hong Kong is part of the People’s Republic of China but insisted the city should enjoy a high degree of autonomy over its internal affairs and that the chief executive and legislature should be elected by universal and equal suffrage. “Loyal opposition” should refer to opposition parties which did not seek to use violence to overthrow the government after they lost the periodic general election in civilised and democratic places, she said, but instead waited to fight the next election. “I guess this is not what Lau Siu-kai is talking about … If what Lau means is for the Democratic Party to uphold whatever Beijing says, then the Democratic Party will definitely not comply,” she said. “We are not going to be the so-called democratic parties which are permitted by Beijing to exist in PRC, which are nothing but window dressing.” Additional reporting by Jeffie Lam