The elephant in the room during the last meeting of Beijing officials and pan-democrats over political reform was the lack of mutual trust. But trust cannot be demanded; it can only be built on working relationships. However, if pan-democrats are forever precluded from taking part in governing, how can any working relationship be established? Nevertheless, vetoing the proposal is unlikely to create trust with Beijing, given the latter's take-it-or-leave-it logic. The fact is, the Occupy movement, with its stirrings of "self-determination", concentrated Beijing's mind. The Basic Law contains provisions...
↧