HONG KONG — The Beijing-appointed leader of Hong Kong, Leung Chun-ying, said Monday evening that it was unacceptable to allow his successors to be chosen in open elections, in part because doing so would risk giving poorer residents a dominant voice in politics. Mr. Leung made the statement during a broad-ranging defense of his administration’s handling of pro-democracy protests that have disrupted the city for more than three weeks. In an interview with a small group of journalists from American and European news media organizations, his first with foreign media since the city erupted in demonstrations, he acknowledged that many of the protesters are angry over the lack of social mobility and affordable housing in the city. But he argued that containing populist pressures was an important reason for resisting the protesters’ demands for fully open elections. Instead, he backed Beijing’s position that all candidates to succeed him as chief executive, the top post in the city, must be screened by a “broadly representative” nominating committee appointed by Beijing. That screening, he said, would insulate candidates from popular pressure to create a welfare state, and would allow the city government to follow more business-friendly policies to address economic inequality instead. Leung Chun-ying, the chief executive of Hong Kong, supports Beijing’s lead role in screening the region’s future leaders. Credit Kin Cheung/Associated Press Mr. Leung’s blunt remarks reflect a widely held view among the Hong Kong elite that the general public cannot be trusted to govern the city well. His statements appeared likely to draw fresh criticism from the democratic opposition, and to inflame the street struggle over Hong Kong’s political future. Representatives of his government are scheduled to hold televised talks with student leaders of the protests, who have said that Mr. Leung was defending a political system stacked against ordinary citizens. Mr. Leung said that if “you look at the meaning of the words ‘broadly representative,’ it’s not numeric representation.” “You have to take care of all the sectors in Hong Kong as much as you can,” he said, “and if it’s entirely a numbers game and numeric representation, then obviously you would be talking to half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than $1,800 a month.” “Then you would end up with that kind of politics and policies,” he continued. Mr. Leung, who has received repeated backing from the Chinese Communist Party’s leadership, argued that the way to remedy social grievances was to expand the supply of housing and spur economic growth. He stressed the importance of maintaining the confidence of Hong Kong’s corporate elite, saying that was one of the goals of the city’s Basic Law, written a quarter-century ago before Britain handed sovereignty over Hong Kong back to China. Mr. Leung spoke at Government House, the ornate mansion that served for more than a century as the official residence of British colonial governors and is now the chief executive’s residence. He said it had been remodeled recently so that he and his top aides could work there while protesters were besieging his offices downtown. “We didn’t miss a beat,” he said. Mr. Leung was appointed in 2012 after being endorsed by a 1,200-member committee of prominent Hong Kong residents. Critics say that committee was packed with Beijing’s supporters, but Mr. Leung said it was also broadly representative, as required in the Basic Law, because it included people in different professions, economic strata, religions and other segments of society. One group he said he wooed on the committee were the 20 members chosen by sports officials and coaches. “If it was an entirely universal suffrage election,” Mr. Leung said, “then the sports community would not count, they would not feature on my radar screen.” He also raised again the suspicions of his government and of Beijing that “foreign forces” had played a role in the street protests, although he declined repeatedly to identify those forces or provide any examples. “I didn’t overhear it in a teahouse, and it’s something that concerns us,” he said. “It’s something that we need to deal with.” A tenacious protest movement has spread beyond its initial student base to embrace discontented middle-class and blue-collar residents. But they face an unyielding Chinese Communist Party leadership, which has said the demonstrators have no chance of securing their demands. Mr. Leung said he has tried to avoid letting standoffs between the protesters and the police escalate into anything that might echo the Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing in 1989. Protesters have accused the Hong Kong police of using excessive force in beating them back with pepper spray and batons. Mr. Leung said that he hoped the “dialogue” scheduled for Tuesday between student leaders and five of his top aides would help ease tensions. Protesters have continued to call for Mr. Leung’s resignation or ouster, both over the police’s tactics against the demonstrators and over accusations of financial impropriety surrounding a business deal he made with an Australian company before he took office. Mr. Leung’s opponents say he accepted $6.4 million from the company over the past two years and did not report it. He says the deal was legitimate and that he had no legal obligation to declare the income. Mr. Leung offered several thinly veiled warnings on Monday that it was risky for the protesters to try the patience of the national authorities. “So far Beijing has left it to the Hong Kong government to deal with the situation, so I think we should try our very best — and this is myself, the government and the people of Hong Kong — should try our very best to stay that way,” he said. “Challenging myself,” he continued, “challenging the Hong Kong government, at these difficult times will do no one any service, will do Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy no service.” Correction: October 23, 2014 An article on Tuesday about remarks by Hong Kong’s leader, Leung Chun-ying, that disparaged open elections, one of the goals of the pro-democracy protesters in the territory, referred incorrectly to the creation of Hong Kong’s Basic Law, a mini-constitution. It was written before — not after — Britain handed sovereignty of the city back to China. 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Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 06:35:00 +0000