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Lieutenant General
Whilst not guaranteed, it's possible he (she is unlikely right now) having been elected by the people directly, rather than owing his success to getting on a small pre-approved list through Beijing's consent, would see the local citizens as being the people he needed to seek approval from. Much like mayors in most democratic countries are cheerleaders for their cities trying to get concessions from the national government, rather than cheerleaders for the national government trying to get their citizens to accept the national government's agenda.
Well the same can be said about "democratically elected officials" what makes you think a popular contest can guarantee a more qualify candidate than what China is doing? The people don't have to time in their days to go research every assets of the candidates qualifications. Even democratic countries are forcing their citizens to accept unpopular programs that became into law like Obamacare for example.
Again, I didn't say they did. I said that Occupy's point was that in order to put the city's interests first, they needed to be able to elect their leader directly and freely.
But Not ALL of Hong Konger doesn't want what the these Occupiers are suggesting. Electing candidates directly and freely isn't all that either. I rather have a boring very qualify candidate to lead the city than say a popular contest where the least qualify candidate wins (admit it, this happens all the time in every free election). The Occupiers just wants things their way so that they can a person that represent ONLY their interests. That means church groups and special interests groups will dominate the advertisement campaign dollars to promote their candidates instead of a very careful selection of candidates. It will turn into a mess of a popularity contest, and as a result the needs and interests of the entire public is not serve expediately and effectively. In politics their is no time for mistakes.