Beijing faces defiance in Hong Kong

Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers disrupted a Beijing official's speech yesterday as he sought to explain a decision announced over the weekend to tightly limit voting reforms for the southern Chinese financial hub.

The legislators chanted slogans and held up placards accusing China's central government of breaking its promise to let Hong Kong directly elect its leader. Some stood on chairs and pumped their fists, waving signs that said "Shameful" and "Loss of faith."

The noisy demonstration at the start of the speech by Li Fei, a deputy secretary general of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, was a rare occasion on which a Beijing official faced open defiance.

Li continued his speech after security officers hustled the lawmakers out of the auditorium, to applause from other members of the audience, including lawmakers and local councilors from pro-establishment parties and business leaders.

Police used pepper spray on members of a radical activist group that attempted to storm metal barricades and enter the venue.

On Sunday, Beijing inflamed political tensions by ruling out open nominations of candidates running for Hong Kong's top job in inaugural elections in 2017. The widely expected announcement set the stage for escalating confrontations between China's central government and democracy supporters in Hong Kong.