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Chinese media turn up the heat on pro-democracy movement

HONG KONG — China’s media is ratcheting up the rhetoric against Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, saying protesters risk becoming foreign puppets.

HONG KONG — China’s media is ratcheting up the rhetoric against Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, saying protesters risk becoming foreign puppets.

In an editorial yesterday in the English-language daily Global Times, the paper linked the protests to other movements that China deems hostile to the Communist Party’s authority.

“The external political situation concerning Occupy Central is increasingly clear cut,” the paper said, adding that “a mix of traditional forces that are confronting the current Chinese regime, including Tibetan, Xinjiang and Taiwan separatists, Falun Gong Devotees, and pro-democracy activists, have beaten the drums for the Hong Kong protests like cheerleaders”.

The comments in the Global Times, which is affiliated with the official People’s Daily newspaper, come on the heels of comments by Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on Tuesday that foreign forces were fanning the protests. Student leaders have demanded China amend a decision that candidates in the city’s first-ever leadership election in 2017 must be vetted by a nominating committee, a mechanism they say will guarantee a chief executive more loyal to China than to Hong Kong.

The editorial was published a day after student leaders met with Hong Kong government officials in televised talks to air their concerns after blocking roads and clashing with police for almost a month.

The talks failed to yield any breakthrough on ending the occupation. The government said it is considering submitting a report to China relaying the demands and concerns of the protesters. Such a report would provide Beijing with a “reference” on the demonstrators’ opinions, rather than attempt to modify an Aug 31 ruling by China on Hong Kong’s leadership elections, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said on Tuesday at the talks.

“Something huge has happened,” Ms Lam said. “Such a social movement is large-scale and its impact is far-reaching.” Ms Lam and four other government officials held discussions Tuesday with five members of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, led by secretary-general Alex Chow, in an attempt to resolve the biggest challenge to China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong since the end of colonial rule in 1997.

Mr Leung said before the talks that society’s patience with the protesters is wearing thin as some main roads remain blocked. “If the police doesn’t act soon to restore law and order and traffic to normal conditions, the general view in Hong Kong is that people in the neighbourhoods or people in the transport sector might take the law into their own hands,” he said.

Mr Leung has said while scrapping the method of vetting candidates is not an option, the question of how the members of the 1,200-person nominating committee are chosen could be open for discussion. BLOOMBERG

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