Tamed hounds

LEUNG CHUN-YING, Hong Kong’s chief executive, left out a few things in his latest report to his bosses in Beijing. On July 15th he told China’s national legislature how he believes the Hong Kong public wants to choose its leader in 2017, when a popular election is to be held under conditions controlled by Beijing.

In his report, Mr Leung claimed that the “mainstream” view in Hong Kong is that the candidates should be nominated only by a select committee, which happens to be what authorities in Beijing want too, to make absolutely sure the winner is someone they like. He failed to mention that on July 1st hundreds of thousands of people had marched for broader democratic rights, or that more than 700,000 of Hong Kong’s citizens have just voted in an unofficial referendum for a more open nominating process.