Beijing Should Let Hong Kong ‘Go Democratic First’
During his National Day address, Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou reiterated his strong support for the Hong Kong people’s appeal to universal suffrage when electing their chief executive in 2017.
Ma adapted Deng Xiaoping’s famous decision of “letting some people get rich first” – by which Deng urged his communist officials to be bold enough to welcome market-oriented reforms in the early 1990s – and suggested that his mainland counterpart President Xi Jinping show more tolerance toward Hong Kong by following Deng’s method: “Let some people go democratic first.” We hope Beijing takes Ma’s goodwill seriously.
