After nearly two years of planning, discussion and then a year of promoting Beijing's vision of democracy, the Hong Kong government on Thursday suffered an embarrassing defeat on its proposed electoral reform legislation.
An impromptu walk-out by pro-government lawmakers just before the vote -- supposedly meant to delay proceedings by creating an insufficient quorum -- misfired. There were enough lawmakers left in the legislative chamber for the historic vote to go ahead and the "no's" overwhelmed the "yes" camp by 28 to eight.
