Once again the front page article of the South China Morning Post is of some Beijing Basic Law expert trying to weasel out of fulfilling the Basic Law and not providing for Universal Suffrage. This time it's Rao Geping backing up Chief Secretary Henry Tang's comments that implementing Universal Suffrage doesn't mean that the CCP^[?] has to surrender its monopoly on power in LegCo^[?] via the undemocratic Functional Constituencies.

It's clear that Henry Tang, the rest of the Hong Kong SAR Executive branch, the CCP's local shoe-shiners and the CCP are only interested in maintaining their hammerlock on power. Period. Can't dollop out economic goodies without the monopoly on power and can't ensure the ICAC^[?] doesn't act on institutionalised corruption by those connected to the existing power elites, if the opposition party assumes control of the levers of power. This is the true lesson that the CCP has learned from Chen Shui-bian.

As for the letters to the editors of the SCMP^[?], they are without a doubt some of the dumbest clucks in the world. Their basic grasp of English is wholly lacking. The surest sign to spot a CCP shoe-shiner is the use of the word "will" instead of "may" or "could" in a sentence about CCP promises regarding Hong Kong's elections. "Will" means that an event is a certainty. The CCP has not made the means of election in 2017 or 2020 a certainty. "May" or "Could" means an "if, then" grammar structure. Certain contingencies have to be met before the "could" or "may" event is possible to happen.

What is the contingency for an election where everyone is allowed to cast a ballot in the election for Chief Executive in Hong Kong? That the method for nominating the candidates is so severely restricted that the CCP can write the ballot, thereby turning the election in to a rubber stamp farce instead of a free and fair election. The opinions supporting the continued existence of Functional Constituencies show that the same rubber stamping farce of CCP-approved candidates is the CCP's intent for LegCo elections as well.

They gloss over one of the hallmarks of Universal Suffrage. It isn't just universal access to casting a ballot that is the sign of Universal Suffrage, it's also universal access to being on the ballot. As the myth in the United States says, anyone can grow up to be the President of the United States. Even a black man. A far cry from a nation where they won't even let a Uighur be the Party boss in the Uighur Autonomous Region. That should tell ya what the CCP means by "a high degree of autonomy" and the true prospects for the CCP actually fulfilling the Basic Law in Hong Kong.