Although the Chinese government promised Hong Kong 50 years of autonomous rule after its return to China from the UK in 1997, Beijing has been blatantly encroaching on Hong Kong's right to self-rule. Beijing has just announced that all the candidates for Chief Executive of Hong Kong must be vetted by China's National People's Congress. If this policy is actually carried out, it means that every future leader of Hong Kong will be pro-Beijing, and pro-democracy candidates will have no chance. Hong Kong people, along with those from Macau, are the few Chinese people out of 1.4 billion who have the fortune to live in a democracy, though even this precious system is being eroded away.