Hong Kong, and its movement towards democratic elections, made headlines around the world this week with the recent decision by the National People’s Congress in Beijing concerning the nomination process for elections. The decision was light on details, but essentially affirmed Beijing’s proposal that candidates for Hong Kong’s Chief Executive would need to be approved by a “Nominating Committee.”

The decision ran counter to what some pan-democrats in Hong Kong had been demanding  – that anyone could be a candidate for chief executive. One particular pro-democracy movement—“Occupy Central”—had been threatening “an era of civil disobedience” if the NPC rejected fully open nominations.

This is an excerpt from a blog post written for Gateway House, a foreign-policy think tank based in Mumbai, India, published on September 5th, 2014. The post can be accessed here.