Hong Kong

LAST Thursday, student leader Joshua Wong was at Hong Kong Commercial Radio to record a programme when he ran into Chief Secretary Carrie Lam. The 18-year-old immediately reached into his schoolbag and pulled out a criticism of the government's public sentiment report released two days earlier.

"Why did you conclude in the report that it is a common aspiration among Hongkongers to implement a system of universal suffrage based on the National People's Congress' Aug 31 framework?" he asked. "Don't you think this is distorting facts?" Instead of answering his question the chief secretary - second-in-command in the Hong Kong government - talked about how and why the report was compiled, causing the student leader to repeat his question.