NEWS ANALYSIS: Pro-democracy legislators herald new era for Hong Kong
CHINA will face new challenges managing Hong Kong’s demands for democracy after a record turnout of voters sent a younger, more radical legislators to the city’s legislature.At least six candidates who expressed support for holding a vote to decide the future of Chinese rule won seats on the 70-member Legislative Council, helping expand the pro-democracy bloc’s numbers in the chamber. Winners in the biggest election since the 2014 street protests included Nathan Law, 23, a former student leader who encouraged classmates to camp on city streets for 79 days.The outcome calls into question Beijing’s hard-line approach to dealing with campaigns for greater autonomy in the former British colony, which was guaranteed free speech, independent courts and a capitalist financial system for at least 50 years after its return to China in 1997. Legislative seats will give members of an emergent "localist" movement who seek self-determination — or even independence — a new platform to challenge B...
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