In a show of strength that will lessen the prospect of more disruptive protests, Hong Kong’s legislative council has vetoed a Communist Party-backed electoral reform package that opposition pro-democracy lawmakers and activists saw as undemocratic. The move is a blow for Beijing’s Communist Party, which had worked hard to pressure the territory’s pro-democracy parliamentarians to back the plan, imposed by China’s National People’s Congress last year, which envisaged only pro-Beijing candidates on the ballot when the Asian financial hub chooses its next leader in 2017. While it is an embarrassment for Beijing, it means the next chief executive of Hong Kong will...
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