Most observers believe that China’s National People’s Congress is amending Hong Kong‘s election law in order to get rid of the democrats once and for all. But pro-Beijing opinion suggests that Beijing is more anxious to find a “patriot to rule Hong Kong,” and that patriot cannot be a “loyal loser. Who are the “large number” of “loyal losers”, the establishment? Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor? Or the masters behind the scenes?
At the two sessions in Beijing, senior Communist Party officials made a high-profile statement about “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” which analysts believe means Beijing has completely abandoned the “one country, two systems” promised to Hong Kong people. Under “one country, two systems,” Hong Kong people enjoy freedom of speech, judicial independence and a degree of electoral rights not enjoyed by mainland Chinese. Under the ‘Basic Law,’ Beijing promised Hong Kong would eventually achieve universal suffrage. Beijing’s concept of “patriots ruling Hong Kong” is tantamount to dividing Hong Kong people into those who submit to Beijing and those who dare to fight for the democratic rights of Hong Kong people in accordance with the Basic Law.
In fact, there are no “traitors” in Hong Kong, nor can there be any “traitors”. The “Hong Kong version of the Security Law” imposed by Beijing on Hong Kong, with four offences including the crime of secession, is tailor-made for those democrats who dare to resist Beijing. If Beijing really abides by its promise of one country, two systems, under which Hong Kong people have the right to march, demonstrate and even oppose the government, Beijing has now criminalized these rights, and more than 100 influential democrats have been arrested or detained.
In this way, “patriots ruling Hong Kong” is said to be an excuse for Beijing to take full control of Hong Kong. However, the problem that arises is that it does not seem easy for Beijing to find such a person or group of “patriots” to rule Hong Kong. This is evident from the opinion expressed by several pro-Beijing scholars, the most prominent of which is the notion of not wanting “loyalists”, a concept that clearly points to the “patriot camp”, as represented by an associate professor at Beijing Law School named Tian Feilong He said, “The central government is determined to create not rubber stamps or loyal losers, but virtuous patriots.” Some criticize that virtuous people can only be created in a competitive and free environment, and that in a reverse-elimination dictatorship, finding virtuous people is just a nice way of saying finding one’s own agents.
The pro-Beijing Dovetail article explains that the “loyal waste” Tian Fei-long refers to is the large number of pro-establishment forces who only know how to chant loyalty slogans and “cannot contribute in times of chaos and cannot practice the governance in ‘Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong’ in times of commitment. The original intention”. As a result, last year’s local elections were the biggest debacle for the pro-establishment camp since the 22-year reunification with China.
If we have to use the term “loyal waste” to describe this failed election, it is far from being caused by the incompetence of the pro-establishment camp. Who triggered a huge anti-China campaign? It was Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s push for legislative amendments that triggered it, and it was the step-by-step moves by Beijing behind her to encroach on one country, two systems that finally invited Hong Kong people to fight for their rights under the Basic Law. Looking deeper, the anti-China campaign was triggered by Carrie’s push for legislative amendments, but it was Beijing, at least with the support of Han Zheng, the Communist Party Standing Committee member in charge of Hong Kong, who made a mess of it.
Another pro-Beijing academic, Zheng Yongnian, who is regarded as Xi Jinping‘s think tank, said in a March 9 interview on Phoenix.com that whether “patriots can rule Hong Kong” or not requires capable patriots to govern, which he believes “we lack now.
Hong Kong is recognized as a place of international general talent, now Beijing can not find the available people? Analysts say that the statements made by some senior Communist Party officials during the two sessions show that Beijing is looking for not just a patriot, but also someone who loves the Communist Party. This may be where the difficulty lies.
A prosperous Hong Kong has come to this point, where the democrats are being sidelined through legislative amendments, and the pro-establishment camp and the pro-Beijing camp are seen as “loyal losers” who cannot find a spokesman for the CCP. Whose fault is it?
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