HK protests challenge supreme power organ: People's Daily

BEIJING - The illegal gatherings of the Occupy Central movement are aimed at challenging both China's supreme power organ and Hong Kong citizens' democratic rights, and are doomed to fail, according to a commentary to be carried by Friday's People's Daily.

For several days, some people have been staging protests in Hong Kong in the name of seeking the so-called "real universal suffrage."

They attempt to force the central authorities to change the decision made by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, on Hong Kong's electoral system. Such actions blatantly violate the Basic Law of Hong Kong and the principle of rule of law, according to the opinion piece.

"There is no room to make concessions on issues of important principles," says the commentary on the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China.

The decision made on Aug 31 granted universal suffrage in the selection of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)'s chief executive on the basis of nomination by a "broadly representative" committee.

The decision possesses unchallengeable legal status and authority. It is "a certain choice and the only choice" to safeguard the decision, according to the commentary.

The NPC decision is in line with the "one country, two systems" policy and the Basic Law. It has fully heeded opinions from all walks of life in Hong Kong, it says.

The core purpose of instigators of illegal activities is to ensure that their representatives, including those in defiance of the central authorities, can become candidates of HKSAR's chief executives, the commentary says. "Such a demand is neither illegal nor reasonable."

As one of China's local administrative regions, Hong Kong is directly under the jurisdiction of the central government rather than a state or an independent political entity, the commentary says.

Once the public opinions were hijacked by a minor group, it would not be conducive to the implementation of "one country, two systems" policy, Hong Kong's long-term prosperity and stability as well as realization of universal suffrage, the commentary warns.