Fallout from implosion of Hong Kong's reform package continues
Walkout fiasco may cost main players their Exco seats as Beijing takes more interventionist line
The implosion of Hong Kong's pro-establishment political forces could lead Beijing to take a more interventionist line on the city, a top adviser on Beijing's ties with the special administrative region has predicted.
The warning, from Professor Lau Siu-kai, vice-chairman of the National Association of Study on Hong Kong and Macau, follows last week's drama, when the Beijing-loyalist members of the Legislative Council staged a bungled walk-out during the vote on the constitutional reform, which exposed incompetence and disunity in the camp and led to a 28-8 defeat for the government.
Recriminations over the blunder continued yesterday amid questions over the futures of some of the fiasco's main characters - Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung, Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and Starry Lee Wai-king - who also hold places in the on the Executive Council.
On Thursday, 31 pro-establishment lawmakers walked out of the legislative chamber in an unsuccessful attempt to buy time to allow former Heung Yee Kuk chairman Lau Wong-fat to vote.
"The pro-establishment elites come from different interest groups and are disunited," Lau, the former head of the official think tank, the Central Policy Unit, said yesterday. "I am afraid the only force that can coordinate them is not from Hong Kong but from the central government.
