>or the direct election of the HK Chief Executive, who up to this point have been nominated from a narrow pool of Beijing-approved candidates
This is only true since the handover from the UK in 1997.
This is only true since the handover from the UK in 1997.
Prior to the handover, the executive head of HK had been the governor, appointed by the British government.
https://qz.com/279013/the-secret-history-of-hong-kongs-still...
Directly from the article:
> And when Mao founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949, he and Zhou Enlai decided not to seize Hong Kong—which the British at the time expected
The other side of the story is that China could've easily seized HK from the beginning, and the people of HK would've been under the direct rule of China, and never gotten any of the freedom and autonomy they enjoy today.