The Communist Party of China (CPC) has officially announced the restructuring of Hong Kong’s election system, setting up many hurdles to greatly reduce the room for the democrats to participate in politics, while the pro-establishment camp is fighting with each other and tearing up each other’s faces for votes. According to veteran current affairs commentator Lian Yizheng, the Chinese Communist Party will stage a “landlord” and “rectification campaign” in Hong Kong, and the incumbent Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, and the Chairman of the pro-communist New People’s Party Yip Lau Suk-yee are all abandoned by the Chinese Communist Party; the Chinese Communist Party is Playing with Hong Kong’s institutions, Hong Kong’s status has changed, and it may even become a military base for the CCP’s armed reunification with Taiwan.
Last Tuesday (March 30), the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) “reformed” Hong Kong’s electoral system by amending Annexes I and II to the Basic Law. The election of 40 seats in the Legislative Council will be added to the Election Committee, the number of directly elected seats will be reduced to 20, and all candidates will be required to obtain nominations from the five major sectors and at least 10 nominations from the Election Committee before they can enter the election. The election proposal has shocked all sectors and is considered to be worse than expected. The U.S. criticized the Chinese government’s move for going against the wishes of the people of Hong Kong, and for causing Hong Kong people to lose their voices on autonomy. The British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also criticized the reform system for undermining the freedom of Hong Kong people and clearly violating the Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Emily Lau criticized the reform system for “losing dignity” and urged the democrats not to run in the election.
The new reform system affects the democratic camp’s willingness to run for election. The Democratic Party held a party exchange meeting earlier, the Democratic Party Chairman Luo Jianxi said after the meeting, the mainstream opinion of the party is that the decision should be made through the general meeting, expected to be held after the September Election Committee election at the latest.
However, the former chairman of the Democratic Party, Emily Lau, questioned the need for candidates to obtain nominations from the five sectors under the new electoral system, “nothing dignified”, and believed that the democratic camp should not run for election.
Emily Lau, who has been in politics for 30 years and has been a member of parliament for seven terms, said explicitly that she did not feel “set up” to run in the past, but this election she does not want those who intend to run to go around and pay tribute to prove that they have not spoken in the last 20 to 30 years that the powers that be do not like to speak before they can be nominated.
Set up a convener system Lin Zheng, Leung Chun-ying intensified mutual fighting
In addition, the current Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and other pro-establishment fighting each other, further intensified.
Leung Chun-ying, who is also the vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), threw out the “Chief Executive consultation theory” in an interview with the pro-communist media in January this year, which sparked heated debates in the political circle. The next day, Chief Executive Carrie Lam made a rebuttal, arguing that it is better to elect the Chief Executive by election; former DAB Chairman and former Legislative Council President Tsang Yok-sing also joined the fray later, refuting Leung’s remarks “without a complete interpretation of the Basic Law” and questioning Leung’s “will he run for Chief Executive again? “
While the doubts about whether Leung Chun-ying will run for the election are not yet released, this reform proposes to set up a convener system for the Election Committee, which is responsible for convening the Election Committee meetings when necessary to handle related matters. The proposal also states that the chief convener will be a member of the Election Committee who holds a national leadership position.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam said that the convener is not her, but is believed to be the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In other words, only former Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying are eligible to serve. Leung Chun-ying was eager to respond, although the details are unknown, but “willing to serve the country and Hong Kong”, he is willing to take up the post.
The outside world is worried that the convener of the election committee will become the “emperor”, and the pro-establishment camp has also expressed its displeasure. The former Standing Committee member of the National People’s Congress, Rita Fan, who has always been pro-communist, said it would be better to be “invisible”, “because there is no need for you to come out, not to use this identity to point fingers at the affairs of Hong Kong.”
Lien Yizheng: Chinese Communist Party messes up Hong Kong system
Former Hong Kong Economic Journal chief writer and senior current affairs commentator Lian Yizheng said in an interview with Epoch Times’ “Jane’s Words” program that the Chinese Communist Party has messed up Hong Kong’s system by restructuring the system, which has intensified infighting among the pro-establishment faction. Both Lam Cheng, Leung Chun-ying and Yip Lau Suk-yee should give up their illusions.
In an interview with Epoch Times, former editor-in-chief of the Hong Kong Economic Journal and veteran current affairs commentator Lian Yizheng said that the Chinese Communist Party is messing up Hong Kong’s system by restructuring, which has intensified the infighting of the pro-establishment camp. Both Lin Zheng and Leung Chun-ying, and even Regina Ip, should give up their illusions. (Song Bilong / Epoch Times)
All are puppets, can they have the right to speak? Elected members, the Hong Kong government, who will have the say in the future? It will not be the Chief Executive or the over-rated Chief Executive who will have the say, it will be the Communist Party itself. So the person who is put up there is just a puppet, right? The more or less you (Chief Executive) for a few years, it will not be too far, because always have to stand on the side, not good enough will be fought.”
He said that this election reform is essentially along the long-standing line of the Communist Party, that is, within 50 years to complete the transition, so that the demise of one country, two systems, directly into the governance of the Chinese Communist Party, to 2047 “seamlessly converge” with the Chinese (Communist Party) system “water and milk blend “. “So now the electoral system in Hong Kong is getting closer and closer to the practice of the Chinese Communist Party’s National People’s Congress, there is no such thing as direct election, it is the election of representatives from all sectors.”
“New Hongkongers” for the “pro-establishment camp”
The current situation in Hong Kong is very similar to the early days of the Chinese Communist Party, when it first pretended to be enlightened and then gradually showed its true colors, according to Lian Yizheng. “The capitalists were not immediately taken to the ‘target’ because they were still useful to the Chinese Communist Party, and the landlords were useless before they were all eradicated. Another more ‘enlightened’ approach was to retain a large number of the KMT officials of the time, except for the most senior officials, and retain the people working below. Why? Because the government had to operate until it (the CCP) could replace these people with its own people, then it revealed its true colors.”
Immediately afterwards, the CCP began to recruit so-called activists, “those who fought against landlords in the countryside until they became activists and new party members, replacing the old government officials, clerks, and leaders of social associations left behind. ‘” He said bluntly, “This phenomenon is now appearing in Hong Kong at any time.”
The Chinese Communist Party relied on the Liberal Party to pull in Hong Kong’s capitalists at first, but now it relies on the Bauhinia Party, and, according to Lian Ezheng, the establishment should also feel some chills. “The Chinese political and cultural tradition says very clearly, ‘When the birds of prey are gone, the good bow is hidden; when the enemy country is broken, the conspirators die. Now that the pro-establishment camp has been ‘targeted’, all the pro-establishment camp has to stand aside.”
He believes that at present, the Chinese Communist Party is deliberately creating infighting in Hong Kong, and then replacing its own people, “one is the people of 689 (Leung Chun-ying), and the other is the people of 777 (Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor), we all fight each other, you fight me, I fight you. Why? The Communist Party wants to use this to make you kill each other. Make it so that every one of them is dusty, as soon as it pushes you away, then it puts its own people up, in all their glory. No one has ever been disliked, no one has ever been duked (reported), on those people on stage. And both groups of useless people will be the ones who die a horrible death.”
Hong Kong positioning change or become a military base for forceful attack on Taiwan
With the reform of the Chinese Communist Party, so that the further demise of the one country, two systems, Lien Yi Zheng believes that the future of Hong Kong’s officialdom will be further mainlandization, the Chinese Communist Party’s culture of corruption will lose Hong Kong, pull a faction to fight a faction, in the name of fighting corruption factional struggle will intensify in Hong Kong. “It has emerged before it came to Hong Kong. Isn’t the Lin Zheng faction beating up the Liang Zhen-ying faction? The Leung Chun-ying faction is also beating up the Lam Cheng faction, (both) the same. So this is something that will only intensify in the future.”
He believes that the Chinese Communist Party’s positioning of Hong Kong has changed. In the past, Hong Kong was the vault of the Chinese Communist Party to support the economic construction of the mainland; at the same time, it hoped to show Taiwan “one country, two systems model unit”, with a view to “peaceful reunification” of Taiwan.
But as the people of Taiwan see the “one country, two systems”, the Chinese Communist Party’s attempt to “peacefully reunify” Taiwan has proven unworkable. The company’s main goal is to provide a platform for the development of a new generation of products. It (the Chinese Communist Party) also has the port of Yulin, the problem is that it is very far and has to pass through the Bass (Bus) Strait, which is also available to the U.S. military, so it is not the best solution. But Hong Kong is a deep water port, and the submarine and Liaoning can be perfectly moored here. There is also the runway at Kai Tak Airport, which can be turned into a military use in the blink of an eye. It would be much easier for Hong Kong to attack Taiwan as a military center.”
“The Chinese Communist Party is determined to turn Hong Kong into a place that is completely controllable and submissive, so that it can be used as a military springboard. I think this is a serious problem that no one internationally is aware of yet, but I suspect that the Communist Party already has this in its calculations.”
Cai Ziqiang: Democrats in a dilemma over election reform
Cai Ziqiang, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Administration at Chinese University, said the electoral system came out this time and it was a shock. Many people had expected that the future election would be strict and tightened, but most people did not expect that it would be harsh and tightened to this extent. The whole nature of the election has changed, “If you can’t run for office without the approval of the central government, that actually turns out to be a central grace.” The biggest change is that elections without the meaning of democracy and freedom have become a “semi-graceful” mechanism, and “perhaps elections that are really meaningful will disappear in Hong Kong in the future.
Tsai Tzu-keung, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Administration at Chinese University of Hong Kong, pointed out that there are many absurdities in this reform. The Chinese Communist Party has put pro-Beijing people in the Election Committee, while kicking all the pan-democratic district councils out of the Election Committee, which is extremely bad. (Leung Chun / The Epoch Times)
The most optimistic result for the democrats in the Legislative Council is that they can only get less than one-fifth of the seats, and the worst result is that they will not get a single seat, depending on whether the Chinese Communist Party is stuck or not. The most important feature of this electoral reform is that it has changed the nature of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council from effectively reflecting public opinion to reflecting the political will of the Chinese Communist Party.
The reformation ignores public opinion and goes against Chinese and foreign values
Cai Ziqiang pointed out that there are many absurdities in this reformation. First, the Basic Law provides for the election of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage in a gradual and orderly manner, followed by full universal suffrage for the Legislative Council. But now all of a sudden there is a big regression, with the number of directly elected seats in the Legislative Council reduced from 35 to 20, and another 40 seats added to the Beijing-controlled Election Committee election seats. It also uses linguistic pseudo-art to disguise itself, saying “go back to square one and start afresh,” “isn’t that a retrogression? But it doesn’t want to use the word regression. This is the first absurdity.
The second absurdity is that it violates the core value that we all take for granted, regardless of the Chinese and foreign countries, that is, there can be no conflict of interest. Many people have said that the biggest laughing stock of the whole package is that “you went so far as to add back some crime fighting committees and fire prevention committees after the abolition of the District Councils (in the Election Committee and functional constituencies). They are appointed by the SAR government. So that means the SAR government appointed some people, and those people are going to elect the Chief Executive in the future, then in fact this is not disguised seeding votes? This is a very serious conflict of interest”.
He said that putting pro-Beijing people in the Election Committee and kicking out the pan-democratic district councils from the Election Committee is extremely bad, to the point of ignoring the core values of both China and abroad and blatantly creating a conflict of interests.
The third absurdity is that this reformation completely ignores the two systems and Hong Kong’s public opinion, and is purely at the discretion of Beijing. “NPC lightning announced, then lightning passed”.
Retreat pressure groups political democrats whether to run for election two difficult
The response of the democratic camp, Tsai Tzu-keung felt “a little disenchanted”, because even to get nominated is very difficult, the EC election is also more group votes.
He pointed out that the biggest difference between political parties and pressure groups in the past is that political parties can run for election, have seats in the parliament, and can speak for the public. If a party does not run for election, there will naturally be no seats in the parliament, then there is no difference between Hong Kong and pressure group politics.
“Inside the Legislative Council, using the five major sectors to nominate, then I will not even run for election, because I think to run for election, the so-called to vote, or someone called begging for votes, etc., is basically quite an insult.”
“But if the District Council also has such an arrangement, then how about you? Are you boycotting all elections? Are you still a political party by boycotting all elections?”
He often says that there is always a chance that Hong Kong will revert to the politics of the “pressure groups” of the 1970s, a regression of 50 years, and this is not just a casual remark. “It’s very simple, maybe a dozen or 20 people, the government came up with some policies, hold a press conference, so (it’s done). Basically you have little influence, you can not vote through the parliament inside, bargaining with it, forcing it to listen to the public on certain issues.”
Chinese Communist system to move Hong Kong Hong Kong people die immigrants
The Chinese Communist Party, through the reform of the system, wants to move the same set of tactics to Hong Kong, by the Chinese Communist Party to set the tone, so as to fix the deep-seated conflicts that have not been fixed for many years.
For the democrats, the test in front of them is tough. If they do not run for the election, the question that arises is, what will happen to Hong Kong in the future? “It’s an irreversible decision, that is, you get this far, it’s quite difficult to turn back, your party will shrink rapidly and turn back to the point of pressure groups.”
Cai Ziqiang believes that the reason why Hong Kong people like Hong Kong is not that they can make a fortune here, but that they can breathe and speak freely here relative to the mainland. “Now after all that is gone, all people see is a wave of emigration.”
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