Hong Kong took a tentative step toward democracy on Thursday, with the city's chief executive announcing that he plans to begin consulting the public on how elections in 2017 should proceed by the year's end.

Beijing has said that 2017 is the earliest point at which locals can begin directly choosing their own leader. Previously, the city's chief executives have been chosen through a narrow election committee largely stacked with pro-Beijing and pro-business interests.

Though the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997, it operates with independent political and economic systems. According to Basic Law, the city's miniconstitution, the 'ultimate aim' in Hong Kong is to eventually select the chief executive by universal suffrage. A public consultation will pave the way for the administration to put together an official proposal, which will need to be passed by the city's legislature and approved by Beijing to be enacted.

'We have to be pragmatic, we have to be accommodating, we have to iron out our differences and work together,' said Leung Chun-ying before the city's legislature on Thursday, in a nod to how arduous the process of passing such a plan is likely to be. Beijing suggested earlier this year that candidates must ' love China' (and not oppose the Communist Party) to succeed, an order that many pan-democrat politicians--who have enough seats to veto any proposal--say is unacceptable.

During public consultations, which are commonly used by the Hong Kong government prior to proposing legislation, members of the public are invited to submit their views online or via email.

Joshua Wong of Scholarism -- a civic organization which led a series of protests last year that forced the administration to drop a plan to bring pro-Beijing patriotism lessons to schools -- said he was gratified by Mr. Leung's announcement. 'If we can have the public consultation as soon as possible, that's a really good thing,' he said.

Still, he remains wary. In particular, he said, the consultation will lose value if the administration doesn't solicit views from the public about a so-called 'civic nomination' process, which pan-democrats have proposed. Under such a system, candidates could run for office if they garner sufficient public support, instead of being tapped through a nominating committee, which activists fear will too closely resemble the city's existing election committee. (Beijing's top diplomat in Hong Kong has already indicated that he views such a plan as unconstitutional.)

'If the public consultation doesn't include civic nomination, it will just encourage more people to join protests or even next year's Occupy Central,' said Mr. Wong, referring to the threat by some activists to blockade streets in the city's financial center if plans for what it considers genuine democracy do not proceed.

In large and clamorous street protests, Hong Kong activists have already expressed their displeasure with the chief executive, driven in part by what they have called his foot-dragging over preparations for 2017 elections. Since taking office last July, Mr. Leung has focused his energies on taming the housing market, along with other more populist efforts including work to better senior citizens' care [Hong Kong Companies Registry].

On Thursday, he continued to stress similar themes. 'In Hong Kong, our development must take care of all fronts--nothing can be missed,' Mr. Leung said. 'Constitutional development is of course important, but we must not overlook livelihood and economic issues.'

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