‘Ball is in Beijing’s court’, Hong Kong pan-democrats say after meeting with Zhang Dejiang

Four pan-democrats were treated with rare warmth by Beijing this week; they engaged with the country’s third-highest-ranking official, Zhang Dejiang, who assured them that further dialogue would follow their meeting.

But the pan-democratic camp is now wrestling with the question of whether there will be a price to pay for such a relationship.

Forging a friendship with the central government, say analysts, could force them into a tight situation between a rock and a hard place – at risk of alienating their support base on the one hand while not yielding much from Beijing on the other.

As it is, the relationship between the central government and pan-democrats has been icy. They have been referred to by mainland officials as the “opposition camp” funded by “hostile overseas powers” eager to bring an end to China’s one-party rule.

The pan-democrats admit it would require skilful positioning to agree to a meeting with Beijing officials since their core supporters have little trust in mainland authorities.

They said no to attending the banquet hosted in Zhang’s honour on Wednesday night.

The invitation to attend a cocktail reception with Zhang came attached with a high chance of a face-to-face conversation. To refuse would have risked losing a chance to reopen communication channels, even though they complained about the short time allotted to the meeting.

“If the central government does not take a step, the pan-democrats won’t,” said Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a political scientist at Chinese University. “There were high expectations following a brief meeting between the two sides in 2010, but nothing came of it.”

Before he left the city yesterday, Zhang said there would be further chances for pan-democrats to interact with mainland officials.

“During the cocktail reception, we listened – patiently listened – to the views from key members ... of what we used to call the pan-democratic camp, or opposition camp – let us not talk about camps or factions,” said Zhang, a member of the country’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee.

“There could be interactions in future,” Zhang said.

Democratic Party leader Emily Lau Wai-hing, one of the four pan-democrats who met the state leader, said it was too early to say whether a regular communication channel with Beijing officials would be established.

“We are always open to communication, but the ball is in their court. [Regular dialogue] will not happen if we count on the Hong Kong government,” Lau said.

Such dialogue, though, could pose a risk to the pan-democrats’ electoral prospects come September if they are viewed as being soft on Beijing. This risk is even greater as radical rivals start to call for independence for Hong Kong.

“Criticisms are expected,” said the Civic Party’s Alan Leong Kah-kit, another pan-democrat who met Zhang. “But what is important is what’s best for Hong Kong.”

Leong said he was “quite sure” more dialogue would follow.

Bunny Chan Chung-bun, chairman of Kwun Tong district council, also at the meeting, said Zhang had been very interested to know what participants had to say.

“His aides were urging him to get in [to the banquet], but Zhang stood still and asked if anyone had anything else to say,” Chan said.

He said Zhang remembered Lau as having travelled to Guangzhou with other lawmakers when Zhang was Guangdong party chief.

In the eyes of their critics, however, such friendly exchanges could be seen as a weakness, if not betrayal, by hardcore democrats.

“This is submission, not communication,” Polytechnic University social scientist Dr Chung Kim-wah declared in an online article.