A leader of Beijing's top think tank on Hong Kong said today that Beijing is behind the banning of a dozen pro-democracy hopefuls from running in the upcoming Legco polls to prevent the hostile forces from taking over the council, RTHK. Lau Siu-kai, the vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said that the central government is taking matters into its own hands as the Sino-US relationship takes a turn for the worse. "So that prompts Beijing into doing something to prevent the hostile forces from taking over Legco and to make sure that the national security is safeguarded," Lau said. "A lot of the people understand that whatever they do, that will not change Beijing’s determination to protect national security. At the same time, given the serious economic situation in Hong Kong and the uncontrollable pandemic, it is quite difficult for large-scale protest movements to get organised."

Source: The Standard July 31, 2020 05:26 UTC