A draft framework on Hong Kong's political reform went from the chairmen's council of the National People's Congress to the NPC Standing Committee in Beijing yesterday the third day of a week-long meeting.
Members start discussing it today and vote on Sunday. But there's a gag order in effect on the contents of the 12-page document until the vote.
Still, it's known that the framework states that up to three candidates - vetted by the 1,200-strong nominating committee as patriots who love their country - will be able to stand for election in 2017 in what will be hailed as Hong Kong- style universal suffrage.
Also yesterday, Standing Committee members heard secretary- general and Basic Law Committee chairman Li Fei's report on the 2017 chief executive and 2016 Legislative Council elections.
In Hong Kong last night - within hours of the draft framework moving along in Beijing - Occupy Central organizers Benny Tai Yiu-ting and Chan Kin-man and key backers were huddled in a meeting.
Among them were pan-democratic legislators, including the Civic Party's Alan Leong Kah-kit and the Labour Party's Lee Cheuk-yan, Alliance for True Democracy convener Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, and leaders of the Federation of Students and of Scholarism.
The Democratic Party's Helena Wong Pik-wan
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said: "We do not rule out launching the Occupy Central movement, though we hope the draft proposal on political reform is only a smoke screen."
In any event, Tai said the group will announce an action plan outside the Chief Executive's Office at Tamar on Sunday following the formal decision from the NPC Standing Committee.
But he admitted: "I'm pessimistic about the current situation."
Cheng said the alliance would not act until after Sunday's NPC vote. "We understand the situation is grim now," he said.
"We also understand the upcoming NPC Standing Committee's formal decision will mean it's almost impossible to fight for a democratic system without screening."
The Federation of Students is already looking to launch class boycotts in universities in mid-September.
Its secretary-general, Alex Chow Yong-kang, added that the way things were shaping citizens will have to "come out in the street."
The Occupy Central movement plans successive waves of struggle, and organizers are now looking to back-up plans if key leaders are arrested before the mass sit-in begins.
It's already been suggested that civil disobedience could begin by next month.
SAR officials and authorities have now taken aim at Benny Tai in particular while branding the Occupy movement as illegal and likely to damage Hong Kong without changing Beijing's stance.
Also looking at a clouded horizon, University of Hong Kong Vice- Chancellor Peter Mathieson said the university will offer assistance to students arrested for joining Occupy Central.
"We cherish freedom of speech, cherish academic freedom and ... we'll respect our students," he added.
Hong Kong Post, meanwhile, denied there was any "political consideration" in it rejecting a bid by Scholarism to mail leaflets relating to the civil disobedience campaign to tens of thousands of households.
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