[1]""The method for selecting the Chief Executive shall be specified in the light of the actual situation in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress.
Paragraph 3 of Annex I Section I of the Sino-British Joint Declaration provides the corresponding backing for art.45: "The chief executive will be appointed by the Central People's Government on the basis of the results of elections or consultations to be held locally.
The Hong Kong Basic Law Consultative Committee noted that opinions were expressed on several areas of the article, including whether the Chief Executive should be appointed by the Central People's Government; that consultation is not as democratic as direct or indirect elections; and that the clause “in accordance with the principle of gradual and orderly progress” is vague and difficult to define legally.
Positions on both sides hardened in early 2013, with the newly appointed chairman of the PRC government's Law Committee, Qiao Xiaoyang, espousing hard-to-define pre-conditions on CE candidature, ("love China and Hong Kong" and "not oppose the Central Government") including declaring that Beijing would refuse to appoint an unsupportive Hong Kong CE even if democratically elected.
Pro-democracy groups formed the Alliance for True Democracy in support of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace protest movement, devised by University of Hong Kong Associate Professor Benny Tai, demanding unconditional universal suffrage.