A central government think tank has implied that Beijing may grant Hong Kong universal suffrage if democrat lawmakers on the island agree to the government’s proposed electoral reforms for 2012, the South China Morning Post reported. Members of the State Council Institute for Hong and Macau Affairs conveyed the message to core members of the pan-democratic party cluster and to Hong Kong academics.China is committed to allowing universal suffrage in Hong Kong as part of its agreement with the UK government to hand the territory back to Chinese control, but implementation has been slow. Democratic lawmaker Cheung Man-kwong said the pan-democrats consider the move to be closing the gap between Beijing and the Hong Kong democratic movement, but said his party would only be willing to discuss the proposal in the context of an endorsement by the Hong Kong government of several principles, including a commitment to require the chief executive to run for popular election in 2017.
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