Legco members invited to Shanghai for meeting

Announced by the Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on 11th March, all LegCo members were invited on a two-day trip to Shanghai on 12th -13th April. Leung emphasized that the dialogue will focus on political reform, during which the lawmakers will meet central government officials. It was later confirmed that the Beijing delegation will include Wang Guangya, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, and Li Fei, deputy secretary-general of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) and chairman of the NPCSC Hong Kong Basic Law Committee.

 The invitation included the radicals and a number of lawmakers who have been deprived of their home return permits because of their dissenting views. The pan-democratic camp have been torn on whether they should participate in the trip and at least seven of them, including four from the Labour Party and Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing, have vowed to boycott the trip. Since the handover, this would be the fourth visit by LegCo members.

Both the 2005 and 2010 visits were during a critical time when Hong Kong was discussing political reform. To secure any reform package, the government must win a two-thirds majority in the 70-member Legislative Council, therefore meaning it must win over some pan-democrats. How the nominating committee should be formed and how it should put forward candidates for a popular vote are expected to be the key battlefields in the electoral reform process.