Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung has warned pro-democracy protesters not to test Beijing’s patience, as he pointed to a possible compromise for ending the civil disobedience campaign that has lasted more than three weeks.

香港行政长官梁振英(CY Leung)警告，呼吁民主的抗议者不要试探北京的忍耐底线。与此同时，他也为一场持续3周多的公民抗命运动指出一条可能达成妥协的路径。

In his first on-the-record interview with international media since the start of protests, Mr Leung said Hong Kong had been “lucky” that Beijing had not yet felt the need to intervene in the stand-off over electoral reform.

自抗议爆发以来，梁振英首次接受国际媒体正式采访。他表示，迄今香港是“幸运的”，因为北京还没有感到有必要出手干预围绕选举改革的对峙。

“There is a thin line between what we do in Hong Kong and what [leaders in] Beijing think or might think they have to do. Now so far, Beijing has left it to the Hong Kong government to deal with the situation,” Mr Leung told the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal in a joint interview yesterday.

“我们在香港做什么，北京（的领导人）认为或可能认为他们必须做什么——这两者之间只有一条细线。迄今为止，北京让香港政府处理局面，”梁振英在昨日安排的联合采访中对英国《金融时报》、《纽约时报》(New York Times)和《华尔街日报》(Wall Street Journal)表示。

“I think we should try our very best . . . to stay that way. Challenging myself, 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.”

“我认为我们应该竭尽所能……保持这种方式。面对当前的棘手局面，挑战我本人，挑战香港政府，对谁都不会有好处，对香港的高度自治不会有好处。”

Protesters first took to the streets on September 26 to demand changes to the way Hong Kong chooses its chief executive, its top politician. Under the present plan, about 5m residents will get to vote in the next election in 2017, the first time Hong Kong residents have enjoyed a “one man, one vote” system for the post.

抗议者最初是在9月26日走上街头的，他们要求改变香港产生其行政长官（当地最高政治职务）的方式。按照目前的方案，在2017年举行下一场选举时，大约500万选民将获得投票权，这将是香港市民首次享有“一人一票”选出行政长官的权利。

However, the candidates for chief executive are set to be screened by a nomination committee that critics fear will be unrepresentative of the Hong Kong people. Thousands of protesters, many of them students, have been staging sit-in demonstrations across Hong Kong – closing highways and shopping streets to traffic and even blockading the chief executive’s office – to call for a rethink.

不过，行政长官候选人将预先经过一个提名委员会的筛选；批评人士担心，这个委员会将不能很好地代表香港市民。数千抗议者（其中不乏学生）一直在香港多处举行静坐示威，堵塞交通要道和购物街，甚至包围行政长官办公室，呼吁重新考虑选举改革方案。

The impasse has led to violent confrontations with police and presented China’s central government with a full-blown political crisis.

这场僵局已导致抗议者多次与警察发生暴力对抗，并给中国中央政府带来一场全面的政治危机。

Protesters want the nomination process opened up to the public, something the Hong Kong government has repeatedly ruled out, instead urging people to take the “deal on the table”.

抗议者希望提名过程对公民开放，香港政府则一再排除这个可能性，而是鼓励人们“袋住先”（先接受桌面上的方案——译者注）。

“We are going to have universal suffrage in Hong Kong . . . that’s beyond doubt,” said Mr Leung, before reading out sections from a hardback copy of Basic Law – a mini-constitution that governs the territory.

“我们将在香港举行普选……这是毋庸置疑的，”梁振英表示。随后他翻开一本精装版《基本法》（香港特别行政区的宪制文件），朗读了相关章节。

He warned of the dangers of populism and insisted the electoral system needed to protect minority groups.

他对民粹主义的种种危险发出警告，坚称选举制度需要保护少数群体。

“If it’s entirely a numbers game – numeric representation – then obviously you’d be talking to half the people in Hong Kong [that] earn less than US$1,800 a month,” he said in reference to the median per capita wage. “You would end up with that kind of politics and policies.”

“如果这完全是一个数字游戏——数字表示法——那么显然你会向每月收入不到1800美元的半数港人喊话，”他在提及中值工资时表示。“你将得到那样的政治和政策。”

His comments are likely to anger those in Hong Kong who argue its system of government favours the rich.

他的这番言论很可能激怒那些本来就认为政府制度有利于富人的港人。

Mr Leung admitted that the government needed to do more to fix the problems facing the poor such as a lack of social mobility and the chronic shortage of housing, which he said was “not acceptable”.

梁振英承认，政府需要采取更多措施来解决穷人所面临的问题，如缺乏社会流动性和住房长期短缺。他表示，后者尤其“不能接受”。

Talks are due to take place between the student group leading the protests and government officials today – the first in what is likely to be a series of meetings between the two sides.

政府官员和带领抗议的学生团体定于今日展开首次对话，预计双方将进行多次会晤。

Mr Leung stressed that these were not “negotiations” but rather an opportunity for students to make their case directly to the government. “We’d like to listen to the students as to what they have on their minds, and what their proposals are,” he said at his official residence. “We are all ears.”

梁振英强调，这些对话不是“谈判”，而是一个机会，让学生们直接向政府陈情。“我们想听听学生们有什么想法，有什么建议，”他在行政长官官邸表示。“我们愿意倾听。”

He said the make-up of the nomination committee – due to be decided during a round of public consultations this year – might offer some room for manoeuvre in striking an agreement with the students. The plan would use the 1,200-member election committee that chose Mr Leung in 2012 as a template. “There could be a compromise, somewhere in between, by making the nomination committee more accept-able to these students.”

他表示，提名委员会的组成——将由今年举行的一轮公众咨询决定——可能会提供一些与学生们达成协议的回旋余地。目前的计划是以2012年选出梁振英的1200人选举委员会为模板。“或许可以使提名委员会更能让学生们接受，从而在中间地带找到一个妥协。”

Mr Leung said at the weekend that protesters had been influenced by “external forces”, rhetoric previously seen in Chinese state media.

梁振英在周末曾表示，抗议者受到“外来势力”的影响，以往只有中国官方媒体使用这种措辞。

While he would not be drawn on the details, Mr Leung made it clear it was a genuine worry for his administration.

虽然他不想谈论细节，但梁振英表明，这确实是他领导的政府所担心的一个问题。

“I didn’t overhear it in a teahouse. It’s something that concerns us. It’s something we need to deal with.”

“我并没有在某个茶楼碰巧听到什么消息。这是我们关切的一件事，是我们需要处理的事。”

邪恶的资本主义。