Word: kong
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...Hong Kong's mini-constitution under China promises eventual democracy for the SAR, but little progress has been made over the past decade, despite mounting pressure from a loose coalition of pro-democratic parties known as the pan-democrats. In November, the Hong Kong government unveiled a package of electoral reforms it pledged would "roll forward democracy." The proposal called for 10 new seats in the 60-seat legislature, divided equally between the elected and the selected seats, and for an extra 400 people to be added to the 800-member committee that nominates and elects the Chief Executive...
...This isn't the first roadblock on Hong Kong's long march toward democracy. The British routinely co-opted or marginalized opponents to colonial rule until the 1980s, when they finally allowed a certain number of local district councilors to be elected. In the early 1990s, the first legislative elections were held, but after the handover, the Chinese temporarily replaced the whole legislature. Since then, it has postponed democracy twice. In 2004, Beijing decreed that Hong Kong could not have universal suffrage before 2012. In 2007, after the pan-democrats defeated a package of reforms almost identical to the ones...
...Universal suffrage seems to hover constantly on the Hong Kong horizon, which is why, this time, the pan-democrats have to ask themselves whether even some small reform is better than no reform. Should they strike a compromise or make battle? Five legislators chose to do battle: in January, they resigned in the hope of forcing what they call a "de facto referendum" when they run again for their seats in the resulting by-elections. But the plan is rash and has proved unpopular. The other pan-democrats distanced themselves from the plan, while the pro-Beijing parties threatened...
...that the Chief Executive will be elected by universal suffrage (and that the nomination committee will be greatly expanded, if not abolished) by 2017 and that legislature will abolish functional constituencies by 2020. Proving the ability to cooperate with the government may do more to sway Beijing that Hong Kong is ready for democracy than exercising the right to act as a loyal opposition...
...Beijing, of course, has the power to postpone democracy indefinitely; the promise it made back in 1997 is vague. Hong Kong's constitution says universal suffrage is the "ultimate goal," but there is no timeline. It's up to the local government to initiate electoral reforms, and it takes its cues largely from Beijing. The central government has continually inserted itself into the process not only by postponing universal suffrage by decree but also by insisting that it must approve any reforms and that the local government can only tinker in limited ways with the current system...