{"id":47669,"date":"2015-06-18T23:09:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=47669 "},"modified":"2015-06-18T23:09:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T23:09:00","slug":"47669-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=47669","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong lawmakers reject Beijing poll plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><\/div><div>18 June 2015<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mzzg.org\/UploadCenter\/ArticlePics\/2015\/25\/2015618_83705644_8963cd4c-cbc2-4bf8-a211-9dc415e92d9a.jpg\" alt=\"2015618_83705644_8963cd4c-cbc2-4bf8-a211-9dc415e92d9a.jpg (624&#215;351)\" \/><br \/><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Legislators in Hong Kong have rejected a controversial Beijing-backed election reform package that sparked mass protests last year.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>The reforms would have given Hong Kong voters the right to choose their leader for the first time in 2017.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>But candidates would be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee and pro-democracy activists said the reforms only offered &#8220;fake democracy&#8221;.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Beijing said it would not change its position on democratic reforms.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Some in Hong Kong had hoped that if the proposals were rejected, China would be forced to offer more far-reaching reforms.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Voting confusion<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>The Chinese government issued a ruling on 31 August last year, saying that Hong Kong&#8217;s leader could be chosen by direct elections by 2017.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>However, the ruling also said that only those nominated by a pro-Beijing committee could stand for election.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Beijing&#8217;s decision sparked protests that drew crowds of more than 100,000 people to the streets.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Media caption<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Pro-government lawmakers were filmed walking out moments before the vote<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>The Beijing-backed electoral reforms had to be approved by Hong Kong&#8217;s legislature before they could be enacted &#8211; but pro-democracy lawmakers, who have enough seats to veto the move, voted down the reform package.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>Without approval from Hong Kong lawmakers, the territory&#8217;s next chief executive will be selected, as before, by a 1,200-member committee currently stacked with Beijing loyalists.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Moments before the vote took place, pro-Beijing lawmakers, who were expected to support the package, walked out of the council chamber.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>This led to confusion ahead of the vote, with some lawmakers unsure as to why others had walked out.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>The 37 remaining lawmakers voted and the motion was rejected with 28 opposing it and eight supporting it. It needed at least 47 votes to pass.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Pro-Beijing lawmakers later blamed miscommunication for the walk-out, after their request for a 15-minute suspension was rejected by the Speaker.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>How it all unravelled for pro-Beijing side: Juliana Liu, BBC News, Hong Kong<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>The outcome was expected, but the circumstances surprisingly dramatic.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>When government officials gave their final speeches, it was hours ahead of schedule. Journalists scrambled to retake their seats in the main chamber at the Legislative Council.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div>Then a bell rang, reminding lawmakers to gather to vote. The cavernous room echoed with tension. A voiced called out, asking to halt the proceedings with just minutes to spare. The head of the council declined. Pro-government legislators walked out in protest.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>One of them, Regina Ip of the New People&#8217;s Party, looked stunned after failing to vote. She said the collective action was unplanned. They had suddenly decided to wait for Lau Wong-fat, an elderly lawmaker who was said to be ill.<\/div><div><\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>As a result, the controversial government reform plan failed by a wide margin.<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div>&nbsp;<\/div><div><\/div><div><\/div><div><\/div><div><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-33179247\">For detail please visit here<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&lt;div&gt;But candidates would be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee and pro-democracy activists said the reforms only offered &quot;fake democracy&quot;. Beijing said it would not change its position on democratic reforms.&lt;\/div&gt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}