On March 11, 2021, the National People’s Congress (NPC) of the Communist Party of China (CPC) passed the Decision on Improving the Electoral System of the HKSAR (Draft). Hong Kong scholars criticized the CCP’s move for setting Hong Kong back 50 years and further stifling the democratic camp’s electoral voice by the CCP.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) passed the draft amendment to Hong Kong’s electoral system pushed by the CPC on March 11 with 2,895 votes in favor, 0 votes against and 1 abstention. Xinhua quickly announced the specifics of the decision and said it took effect immediately. The decision has nine articles to “ensure ‘Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong’ with patriots as the mainstay” and “improve the effectiveness of governance in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” the newspaper noted. According to Cai Ziqiang, a senior lecturer in the Department of Politics and Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the move sets Hong Kong back 50 years and further stifles the democratic camp’s electoral voice by the Chinese Communist Party.
Change the rules of the game to prevent the democrats from seizing power
According to Tsai, last year’s postponement of the election by the Hong Kong government on the pretext of restricting the gathering was in fact due to the fact that the democratic camp won 80% of the seats in the district election, and Beijing could not afford the risk of “seizing power”, so it changed the rules of the game to “move the dragon gate (move the goal of the competition) so that you cannot hit it”.
In a March 11 interview with Jane’s Voice, Cai Ziqiang, a senior lecturer in the Department of Politics and Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said he thought the move would set Hong Kong back 50 years.
He sees the impact on the pro-democracy camp, including the strengthening of the eligibility check. “‘Non-patriots’ cannot run for election. It is ‘Hong Kong independence, collusion with foreign forces’ can not enter the gate. Even if some of them can enter the gates, all of them can suppress the democratic camp’s seats to less than one-fourth, preventing more than half of the seats from being won by the democratic camp and seizing power.”
Tsai Tzu-keung added, “Originally, for the public, I just want to choose a legislator who can represent me. But for it [the Chinese Communist Party], if the legislator you elect threatens its right to govern, it has to launch a ‘war of defense of the right to govern’.”
The decision to amend the electoral system in the two sessions of the National People’s Congress indicates that the EC will be expanded to 1,500 members and divided into five major sectors, including “industrial, commercial and financial sectors,” “professional sectors,” “grassroots, labor and religious sectors,” and “legislators. “, “Legislative Council Members, representatives of district organizations, etc.”, and “Hong Kong deputies to the National People’s Congress, Hong Kong members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and representatives of Hong Kong members of relevant national organizations”.
The Legislative Council will be expanded to 90 seats, and the Chief Executive will be nominated jointly by at least 188 members before he can enter the gate. And each of the above five sectors will have at least 15 members participating in the nomination. The Chief Executive can only be elected if he or she receives more than half of the EC votes.
Tsai Tzu-keung said, “The election of the Chief Executive is to have nominations from each sector, will the election of the Legislative Council in the future will have to have all? If each sector has to have (nominations), since the democratic camp has not tried to get nominations from the business sector before, it is difficult to get nominations, and we have to look at Beijing’s face.” In this case, even if it allows some democrats to run, the number will be very small. The worse case is that it does not allow you to run at all, the result is that it is difficult for the democratic camp in Hong Kong to enter the parliament.”
In this regard, he said that the situation in Hong Kong has “regressed 50 years” to the pressure groups of the 1970s – no chance to vote in the parliament, bargain with the government, get resources and build a mass base. “In the past, we could still march, but now we can’t even march.”
Poorly defined purpose of patriots triggers chilling effect
The decision to amend Hong Kong’s draft electoral system was passed at a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party’s National People’s Congress (NPC). Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam then issued a press release expressing her firm support for the NPC decision and met with the media in the evening. Asked about the composition of the Qualifications Committee and the Election Committee subsector, Lam said she could not give details, which are within the scope of the NPC Standing Committee’s decision.
In the press conference in the evening, she said that the amendment of the law, the central government from the system to fully implement the principle of “patriots ruling Hong Kong”, and “believe that it can plug the loopholes and solve the problem of the pan-politicization of the Legislative Council,” and so on.
The Chief Executive, Mrs. Carrie Lam, claimed that the amendment of the law is a comprehensive implementation of the principle of “patriots ruling Hong Kong” from the institutional point of view. Cai Ziqiang believes that the Chinese Communist Party will not define “patriots” clearly, in order to cause a chilling effect.
As for the definition of “patriot,” Cai believes that the Chinese Communist Party will not try to define “patriot” clearly, in order to cause a chilling effect.
For example, he said, “It has previously amended the Constitution to move the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party from the preamble to Article 1, so ‘opposing one-party dictatorship’ can be interpreted as targeting the CCP, and you are ‘opposing the Constitution’. ‘against the Chinese system’.” As a result, no one dares to talk about “ending one-party dictatorship” anymore. “Now the rules of the game have been modified, and no one knows how much tighter it will be in the end, to review the eligibility of candidates.”
Since Feb. 22, when Xia Baolong and other Chinese Communist Party officials began making statements about “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” many in Hong Kong’s pro-establishment, business and industrial sectors have paid lip service to the idea of “patriots ruling Hong Kong. But Tsai believes that there is a possibility that the mouth is not what it seems and that there are many people who are cold-hearted.
“In the past, Hong Kong is able to live, we are reasonable, realistic, but now we are worried about causing a trend, so that many people have a cold heart. In many things ‘on the line’. For example, recently a senior government official of the Hong Kong Government, and never a yellow silk, but it was targeted on the mask she wore with a suspicion that the ‘five major demands are missing’ meaning in it. As a result, even the manufacturer of that mask had to come forward to state that the manufacturer’s emblem number was just an acronym and had nothing to do with yellow silk.”
“This makes many people very heart light, is not back to the Cultural Revolution period? At that Time is to discuss you ‘revolutionary or not revolutionary’, now is to discuss you ‘patriotic or not patriotic!'”
The pro-establishment faction of the business sector is afraid of being diluted
Cai Ziqiang analysis, the revision of the electoral system on the entire political ecology of Hong Kong has a great impact, in addition to the democratic camp, the establishment is the biggest impact on the business sector. As in past elections, the business sector has played a key role, and the Chinese Communist Party does not feel at ease with the number of votes in the election committee, must do some compromise with the business sector.
However, in recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has become increasingly dissatisfied with and distrustful of the business sector. For Beijing, it prefers to believe that Hong Kong’s problems stem from “deep-seated conflicts,” and “it blames the root of all problems on so-called deep-seated conflicts. Of course it won’t acknowledge the political problems, it finds a reason to see these deep-seated conflicts as problems of land, housing, youth mobility, discontent with mainlandization, etc. – these are the reasons it can accept.”
To resolve these “deep-seated conflicts,” the business community is the biggest obstacle. “Beijing has to deal with the following issues: 1. land; 2. housing; 3. tax system. For example, Lam Cheng wants to introduce a vacancy tax, but it is now on hold. Consumption tax, for example, can broaden the tax base and increase government revenue, but it must bring opposition from the business sector.”
Cai Ziqiang expects that the Chinese Communist Party will “ditch” (dilute) the business sector from the Legislative Council seats, the business sector is diluted, “when Beijing can control more than half of the votes, it will be emboldened to promote some so-called policies to solve deep-seated conflicts. It’s not good for the business sector.”
The Basic Law becomes a piece of paper
Tsai Tzu-keung confessed, “The most ironic thing that people feel in the past six months is that you always tell me to read the Basic Law, but the problem is that we find that after reading the Basic Law, it turns out that these can be changed.” “We can say what is stipulated in Article 45 of the Basic Law, with the phrase ‘unless the Central Authorities want to change it.’ The phrase ‘unless the Central Authorities want to change’ may have to be added to every sentence of the Basic Law in the future.”
Arbitrary interpretations and arbitrary changes to the Constitution and the Basic Law have led to frequent changes and inconsistent legislation. Tsai Tzu-keung said, “In the past, to remove a legislator from office, one had to go through a Legislative Council procedure. Now Beijing directly DQs (disqualifies). Now Annex 2 of the Basic Law has been amended as well. The NPC used to propose a five-part process, but now there is no five-part process, it has become a one-step process. What used to be proposed in the Basic Law, by the NPC, might be changed the next day. Then it will give a reason, even if that reason is self-contradictory to the previous one it put forward. For example, the political reform proposal, the super seats.”
“Six months ago students asked me how the Basic Law was written and I would tell them how it was, but now it is always said that the NPC is above the Basic Law, which is right in terms of the constitutional structure, but if it is always done that way, what is the point of familiarizing ourselves with the Basic Law? These things can change at any time.”
For scholars studying politics and the electoral system, Tsai mentioned that in the past, some scholars had some research topics, such as “identity”, which would touch the red line in the current Hong Kong environment. Research on the electoral system has not yet touched the bottom line, since 1995, he has commented on the election, seven Legislative Council elections, he has commented. But he says the biggest impact now is that “the scope of our research is DQ’d, and future research may not be as meaningful.”
Recent Comments