HK Democrats pressure Beijing on democracy ruling

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Democratic Party is staging a seven-day hunger strike calling for full universal suffrage by 2012, as China's parliament meets to decide this week whether to widen Hong Kong's democracy.

Democratic Party members began the protest on Sunday, weeks after the city's chief executive, Donald Tsang, recommended in a report that 2017 was a more pragmatic target for full democracy.

The Standing Committee of China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), is meeting in Beijing to discuss the report and is expected to make a ruling clarifying Hong Kong's democratic future later this week.

"We cannot be very hopeful, we all know that the NPC Standing Committee would not be very receptive to full democracy in Hong Kong in the foreseeable future," said Albert Ho, the Democratic Party Chairman, who had spent the night camped outside Hong Kong's legislature.

Ho said the hunger strike "relay" would involve individual participants forsaking food in 24-hour shifts up until Saturday.

Since Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, how and when Hong Kong might be allowed full democracy as promised has dominated local politics, driving a wedge between the pro-democracy and pro-establishment camps.

Tsang urged China this month to allow greater democracy in the former British colony in a report that said the majority of people in Hong Kong wanted direct elections by 2012.

But the same report was criticized by the pro-democracy camp for suggesting a delay until 2017 as a more practical option.

Hong Kong's mini-constitution promises direct elections as the "ultimate aim" but is vague on a date, giving Beijing scope to dictate the pace.

(Reporting by Edwin Chan and James Pomfret; Editing by Alex Richardson)