High Tide (March 5th 2015) – Daily Political Round-Up

Last shout-out on NENT development plan; Political reform proposals from HK2020 and FTU; Former student leader and Beijing play the cards. Photo Credit: Chris Lusher

Politics (Gov’t & LegCo)

Town Planning Board holds final representation hearing meeting on NE New Territories development plan.
– Representatives from local inhabitants complaint during the meeting that property developers had already started evicting residents based on the “In-situ land exchange” proposed by the Government
– They blasted the Board and the Government’s inaction toward the developers, describing the whole plan as transfer of interests and a devastation to the city’s agricultural development

Politics (General)

HongKong2020 and HKFTU propose amendments to the constitutional reform for 2017 election.
– Anson Chan’s think tank HongKong2020 announced their proposal on the political reform, including replacing corporate voting by individual voting and District Councillors by elected representatives of registered voters with no voting rights in the First, Second and Third Sectors
– Chan said unless the Government can made substantial changes, it is unlikely that the reform could be passed in the LegCo
– The HKFTU meanwhile proposed a loose entry requirement (60 votes) with a strict reqirement to become an eligible candidate (600 votes)

Former student leader seeks judicial review to overrule the “8.31 decision”.
– Former President of HKUSU and HKFS Standing Committee member Yvonne Leung made an application for judicial review against the “8.31 decision”
– Leung argued that Beijing does not have the jurisdiction to determine political reforms in Hong Kong
– CPPCC member Chan Wing-kee trashed the action as “mere filibustering”

China and World

Beijing reasserts its authority in Hong Kong’s political reform.
– Several senior officials from the Central Government, including Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee Zhang Dejiang, former Chairman of the 11th NPC’s HKSAR Basic Law Committee Qiao Xiaoyang, Deputy Secretary General of the NPC Standing Committee Li Fei were present at the Hong Kong-Macau CPPCC joint meeting
– Qiao and Li told reporters that there is no room for revision on the “8.31 decision”
– Zhang reportedly said during the meeting that Hong Kong people should have a better understanding on the concept of “One Country, Two Systems” and that the HK Police’s handling of the Occupy Movement was “exemplary”