Hong Kong's legislature last month voted down a China-backed plan to reform the process for electing the territory's chief executive, which opposition, pro-democracy lawmakers considered a "fake" general suffrage model. Beijing should take the rejection by the Hong Kong legislature seriously and come up with a truly democratic plan for electoral reform.

The plan vetoed by the legislature had been crafted by China in August last year. If approved, it would have allowed Hong Kong residents to vote in a 2017 election for their next chief executive — but only from a list of pre-approved, pro-Beijing candidates. Opposition activists, who demanded that pro-democracy candidates be allowed to run in the election, organized massive demonstrations against the plan for more than two months on Hong Kong's main streets last year.

Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997. The Hong Kong Basic Law stipulates that someday the chief executive will be elected through general suffrage. But its three chief executives so far have been elected by a 1,200-member nominating committee dominated by pro-Beijing loyalists. The latest vote by the legislature means this system will remain through the 2017 election unless new reform is carried out.

When Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule 18 years ago, then-President Jiang Zemin promised that China would uphold the "one country, two systems" formula and assure Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. But after the reversion, the Chinese pushed the "Chinization" of Hong Kong through such means as patriotic education. Friction emerged between Hong Kong residents and tourists from the mainland who have come to visit the territory in growing numbers.

Anti-China sentiment among local residents intensified as the influx of mainland capital led to a surge in real estate prices, resulting in housing shortages. In February last year, a former senior journalist at Ming Pao, a pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper, was attacked by a thug, spreading fears that freedom of the press and expression was being threatened.

With Hong Kong people's frustration over the stagnation in the democratization process running high, it is all the more important for President Xi Jinping to remember Jiang's promise, which has become an international pledge by Beijing, and translate it into concrete action.

Just before the vote was taken in the 70-member Hong Kong legislature on June 18, a large number of lawmakers supporting the Beijing-backed plan walked out in an attempt to prevent a quorum. But apparently due to bad communications, some pro-establishment, pro-Beijing lawmakers remained inside. Then the vote, which required a two-thirds majority, was taken. Of the 37 lawmakers present, with a quorum reached, 28 voted against the plan while eight voted in favor and one did not cast a vote — an overwhelming win for the pro-democracy legislators.

Even if there had not been the walkout, the electoral plan would not have been approved because pro-democracy legislators had the numbers to block a two-thirds majority.

A poll in Hong Kong before the vote had shown that 47 percent of the public supported the Beijing-backed plan, while 38 percent opposed it. Many Hong Kong residents apparently wanted to cast direct votes to choose their leader — even from among pro-China candidates. But the proposed election formula was clearly not genuine general suffrage. The Chinese government should not close its eyes to the fact that nearly 40 percent of Hong Kong residents opposed its plan and that the territory's legislature voted it down.

To achieve true general suffrage in Hong Kong won't be easy given the strong power held by the Chinese government over its special administrative region.

It is all the more important for pro-democracy legislators and citizens in Hong Kong to foster solidarity with the international community and persevere in pressing Beijing to honor its 1997 commitment and realize a truly democratic election.