Quotable

I think China has managed, generally speaking, very well during the years since 1997. It has obviously taken charge of foreign affairs and defense of Hong Kong, but within that, Hong Kong has very far-reaching and extensive autonomy."

Charles Powell, private secretary to then-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher during the 1980s, told Xinhua News Agency that the proposed plan for the election of Hong Kong's chief executive in 2017 is a positive step, and that demonstrations against the election plan are "fundamentally mistaken" and show some demonstrators' ignorance of history.