Tsang Yok-sing Urges Reforms, Rejects Resignations

Former Legislative Council president and pro-Beijing stalwart Tsang Yok-sing has rejected calls for the resignation of members of the Executive Council and instead urged a new round of discussion of political reform.

Tsang was responding to calls from some pro-establishment heavyweights, including Liberal Party honorary chairman James Tien, for Exco members to resign for failing to oppose the government's attempts to push through its now-suspended changes to the extradition laws.

Speaking in an interview with veteran Democrat Emily Lau, Tsang said confidentiality in Exco made it impossible to judge how exactly an individual member had performed.

"The Executive Council works in such a way that no one outside Exco can actually know what an individual member of the council has or has not contributed," Tsang said. "So I simply do not have the confidence to comment on the performance of individual members."

He said the only way to resolve the impasse was to reopen discussion of political reform. He said this need not stick to the framework set by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 2014, which would have given an overwhelmingly pro-Beijing committee the power to veto candidates for chief executive.

"Let's start talking! That's my only proposal. I can't think of anything else," Tsang said. "The problem is there are people who want universal suffrage and we don't even have a timetable right now. We don't know when we can reopen the discussion. We don't know.

"This is why people are not happy. This is why people are angry. This is why young people resent it, right? This is my assessment. But if that is the case, then obviously we have to do something to address it. Start talking."

However Tsang said he did not know whether Beijing shared his views.