June 20, 2014
Photograph by Bobby Yip/Landov
As it organizes an election of its own in Hong Kong that begins today, Tai’s pro-democracy campaign is entering its most dangerous stage yet. “The movement now has reached a critical point,” Tai told reporters. Critics have denounced Tai and his fellow activists, saying Occupy Central will lead to chaos in the center of Hong Kong. The group has also had to contend with cyber sabotage, following a hacking incident that targeted Occupy Central’s website. The campaign, Tai said, “has been under a wave of attack.”
Occupy Central isn’t staging any sit-ins just yet. Instead, it is asking people to vote. Tai’s group is organizing an unofficial citywide referendum that will last until June 29 to weigh public opinion on how to choose Hong Kong’s next leaders. Since the city’s return to Chinese rule in 1997, a small pro-Beijing committee has selected the chief executive, but China has promised some form of universal suffrage for the next election in 2017. The question is, what does universal suffrage mean? The pro-China side wants a screening process, with a committee that vets candidates first before allowing ordinary voters to decide. Tai and his fellow Occupy Central activists reject that, calling for “public nomination” of candidates so the Chinese government doesn’t have a veto.
