POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 52 (05-02-2015)

Occupy Central

Occupy Central is a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020 according to "international standards." The movement was initiated by Benny Tai Yiu-ting (戴耀廷), an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, in January 2013.

Umbrella Movement

The Umbrella Movement (Chinese: 雨傘運動; pinyin: yǔsǎn yùndòng) is a loose political movement that was created spontaneously during the Hong Kong protests of 2014. Its name derives from the recognition of the umbrella as a symbol of defiance and resistance against the Hong Kong government, and the united grass-roots objection to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) of 31 August.

The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace,  groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.

Occupy Central site in Causeway Bay was cleared as police moved in  ...

POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 52: 

Full coverage of the day’s events

Beijing gets word on reform latest


Two members of the three- person political reform task force Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung and constitutional affairs chief Raymond Tam Chi-yuen flew to Beijing yesterday to update officials on the latest developments locally.

Yuen said he will accurately convey the SAR's political situation to the mainland, including the proposal of Basic Law Committee member and law professor Albert Chen Hung-yee to provide a "none of the above" option or blank vote in the ballot for the 2017 chief executive election.

He said he will also inform the central government about another version of "none of the above" as suggested by associate professor Law Chi-kwong of the University of Hong Kong.

"We will appraise mainland officials of the various discussions taking place in Hong Kong with regard to the `none of the above' category," Yuen said.

He added the government is not only fighting for four more votes in passing its political reform in the Legislative Council, but wants the support of as many lawmakers as possible, which will result in better governance.

"From the very beginning, we have been always fighting for the lawmakers' support."

Yuen said there is still some time before the Legislative Council votes on the package in the summer and the government will continue to lobby.

In another development, the Alliance for Peace and Democracy announced its five-day campaign to distribute thousands of leaflets urging the public to express their views on the political reform package.

Alliance convener Robert Chow Yung said lawmakers would pay a heavy price in the 2016 Legco elections if they ignored the will of the people.

The democrats' call to relaunch reform talks was selfish.

Meanwhile, pro-establishment and medical-sector lawmaker Leung Ka-lau criticized pan-democrats for insisting on civil nomination for their own interests.

He explained if the chief executive election remained unchanged in 2017, different pro- democracy parties will need to combine their resources in the election.

Lau Siu-kai, vice chairman of think-tank National Association of Study on Hong Kong and Macau, said the functional constituencies in Legco might remain in the future, but elements of universal suffrage will be added by way of amendments.

But Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing said this could not be considered true universal suffrage.