2014-06-24
Hong Kong Chief Executive C.Y. Leung (R) meets with Hong Kong businessmen in Beijing, April 11, 2012.
AFP
Hong Kong’s chief executive C.Y. Leung on Tuesday hit back at commentaries in China’s state media slamming an unofficial referendum on democratic reform, although analysts said he has already been left with no room for maneuver by Beijing.
“The [state-run] Global Times yesterday published an article headlined: ‘However many are involved in the illegal referendum, they can’t match 1.3 billion’—I don’t agree with that,” Leung said. “Nobody should place Hong Kong people in confrontation with mainland Chinese citizens.”
Leung’s remarks came after more than 700,000 of Hong Kong’s residents cast a vote in a poll seeking to gauge popular support for universal suffrage in 2017, and marked a sharp change in direction from his previous comments on the referendum.
In the poll via the smartphone app “PopVote” or the website popvote.hk, Hong Kong’s five million eligible voters are being asked to choose between three different options for the selection of candidates in the 2017 race for Hong Kong chief executive, all of which involve some form of public nomination.