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Hong Kong: Students strike for democratic election reform

Billionaire tycoons lobby China government for right to vet HK leadership candidates

Thousands of Hong Kong students walked out of classes yesterday, declaring a week-long strike for electoral reform.

Organisers are frustrated at the glacial pace of change in the former colony since it returned to China after 155 years as part of the British empire.

Under the “one country, two systems” policy Beijing agreed with local elites to ease its incorporation into the Peoples Republic, much of the undemocratic colonial set-up remains intact — meaning Hong Kong residents will elect their own leader for the first time only in 2017.

And China’s National Peoples Congress has bowed to pressure from the city’s powerful business lobby to insist that a nomination committee vet candidates for the top job and limit their number to three.

“Preselected candidates by a controlled nominating committee can only represent vested interests,” said Hong Kong Federation of Students secretary-general Alex Chow.

Students argue that the billionaires who dominate Hong Kong will veto any candidate who might take action to tackle growing inequality and poverty in one of the world’s richest cities.

But China points to a 1997 agreement to maintain the special administrative region’s capitalist economy for 50 years which formed a crucial part of the handover deal.

Beijing fears that reneging on the commitment could cause instability and put Taiwanese leaders off signing a similar deal in future.

Over 60 Hong Kong businessmen, including Asia’s richest man Li Kashing, met China’s President Xi Jinping in the capital yesterday.

They did not reveal details of their agenda but warned students to “avoid confrontation.”

“Hong Kong is a financial centre and if the main financial district is messed up then it will be ruined,” property billionaire Lee Shaukee told Chinese media.

The protests are embarrassing for President Xi, who on Sunday celebrated the 65th anniversary of the Peoples Political Consultative Conference — a vast council of representatives from different political parties, industries and women’s and youth groups — with a speech on China’s “consultative democracy,” which has not been extended to Hong Kong.

Mr Chow has vowed that students will “definitely upgrade the movement to another level” if they do not get reform.

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