Beijing accepts that several young pro-democracy “radicals” will be elected to the Hong Kong Legislative Council in September, a top Chinese official has said, according to the SCMP.
Beijing’s refusal to grant the city full democracy has embittered a younger generation of activists, which culminated 2014’s Umbrella Movement protests.
Since then, political tensions have remained, with a riot in the tough, working-class neighborhood of Mong Kok in February and strong voter support for Edward Leung, an activist leader who placed third in a LegCo by-election in February.
“It will be normal that several radical young people will be returned as lawmakers (in September),” Feng Wei, the deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing, told the SCMP.
“Politics is the process of putting theories into practice. Young people participating in politics, including radicals, will gradually mature,” Feng said in the interview, which was the first interview given to Hong Kong media by a top Beijing official handling Hong Kong’s affairs since the early 1990s.
Hong Kong is set to hold a full legislative council poll later in the year, pitting a pro-democracy camp that now enjoys a slender one-third veto bloc against pro-Beijing and pro-establishment parties.
Feng said the central government was “very concerned” about the rise of radicalism and was analysing the reasons behind the phenomenon. He said the tendency of resorting to violence was notable in the Mong Kok riot.
“Perhaps in a certain period in future, this is a phenomenon which will merit increasingly more of our attention, though this is something we do not want to see,” Feng added.
Feng said that supporters of separatism and independence are a minority who do not represent the mainstream Hong Kong population, and he understands the frustrations of youths amid the city’s sluggish economy growth. The median income has barely risen in the past two decades, while property prices have surged.
But Feng said Beijing could also improve communications and understanding of Hong Kong people, and needed to learn to express its thoughts in a language Hong Kong people could comprehend and accept.
Words: Reuters
