Emily Lau, a former member of the Democratic Party in Hong Kong’s Legislative Yuan, says Beijing’s move is a clear attempt to block the pro-democracy camp and fully govern Hong Kong.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is planning to take a serious action against the District Councils, following the seizure of the democratic legislators’ seats in Hong Kong. Several pro-China media in Hong Kong reported that the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC) may make a major announcement this Saturday (26), and it is expected that a large number of pro-democracy district councilors may be disqualified. There are also rumors that Beijing intends to abolish the seats of the Chief Executive Election Committee, which are elected by DC members from among themselves, in order to take full and absolute control of all elections in Hong Kong.
Last November, the pro-democracy camp won the dominant position in Hong Kong’s district councils under the effect of the anti-China campaign, overthrowing the monopoly of the pro-Beijing camp, which may make Beijing sit up and take action to change the political map of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s pro-China media “Hong Kong 01” cited sources reported that the Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress held its regular meeting in Beijing on Tuesday (22), and this Saturday (26), when it closes, is expected to have a major announcement, will deal with the current District Council issues, including specifying that District Council members must take an oath, when a large number of democratic District Council members or allegedly failed to meet the contents of the oath, that is, sincere support for the Basic Law and allegiance to the Hong Kong SAR, will be stripped of They will be stripped of their membership. There may be no by-election for the seats in question, and the Hong Kong government may directly appoint people from the districts to fill the vacancies. If Beijing really comes down heavily on the District Councils, how will it rewrite the existing district power dominated by the pro-democracy camp?
Democratic District Councilors: Hong Kong is like entering the martial law era without martial law declaration
Tsuen Wan District Councilor Shum Ao Fai said in an interview with this station that he had long expected to be disqualified, and it is estimated that as many as more than 100 members of the democratic camp will be affected, including at least his and the Eastern District Councilor Cheng Tat Hung, Southern District Councilor Yuen Ka Wai and Central and Western District Councilor Leung Fong Wai, who were disqualified from running for the Legislative Council earlier. For the voice of the District Council members to resign in protest, he said there is no consensus for the time being.
Sham Aohui: “District Council is an advisory structure without actual power, theoretically will not pose any threat to the government, even a channel to reflect district affairs, are to be completely stifled, feel like entering an era of martial law without the declaration of martial law. Basically the ‘double 11‘ decision, that is, the disqualification of four Legislative Council members, has made it clear that there will be no more elections in Hong Kong. She (the Chinese Communist Party) just wants to turn the Legislative Council into an appointed system.”
He estimated that Beijing may have two directions on the issue of DC members taking the oath, including disqualifying only those DC members whom Beijing considers to be “thorns in its side”, or leaving the democratic camp without a majority in each district. If the latter is the case, Sham Ao Fai believes that hundreds of DC members will be disqualified by then.
The democratic camp has not reached a consensus on whether to stay or go in the district councils
In an interview, Yu Tak Po, a member of the Civic Party’s Yau Tsim Mong District Council, said that if Beijing disqualifies district councilors on a large scale, the government will appoint unelected or unsuccessful candidates to replace those elected by the public, and “it is simply impossible to account for them with the voters”. For the time being, he will choose to stay on the District Council front, which is still dominated by the democratic camp, but there is no consensus within the party or the democratic camp as a whole on whether to stay or not.
Yu Tak-po: “The only person who can disqualify a Hong Kong legislator is the voters of Hong Kong. (General resignation) voice has been brewing, but the general resignation is not the mainstream approach. In the Legislative Council, the pro-democracy camp or non-Beijing people do not play a leading role, but now after we resign, will we lose our leading role in the District Council? There are many things that have still not been innovated in the past year, especially the reform in district administration, so is it necessary to give up this front?”
Beijing vows to take absolute control of Hong Kong’s elections to pave the way for the Legislative Council and Chief Executive elections
According to sources quoted by the South China Morning Post, in addition to disqualifying District Council members, Beijing also intends to abolish 117 seats in the Chief Executive Election Committee, which are elected by District Council members from among themselves, and increase the number of Hong Kong members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) to 200 seats, with all CPPCC members becoming members of the Election Committee.
In other words, the Chief Executive election to be held next year, originally in the current political map of the District Councils, the democratic district councilors will be able to take all 117 EC seats, the total number of democratic EC seats is expected to exceed 400, that is, one-third of the overall EC, enough to influence the Chief Executive’s first election. However, if all the EC seats are cancelled, the pro-democracy camp’s wish to break the monopoly of pro-Beijing people in the election will not be realized.
The report also quoted sources as saying that Beijing plans to abolish the District Council (second) sector, commonly known as the “Super District Council”, to prevent the pro-democracy camp from gaining dominance in the Legislative Council election. The “super DC” is the final proposal of the political system reform in 2012 negotiated between the pro-democracy camp and Beijing in 2010, so that all voters in Hong Kong who do not belong to any functional constituency can enjoy one-person-two-votes, in order to balance the Legislative Council functional constituency seats monopolized by the pro-Beijing camp.
Former Legislator: Hong Kong’s democratic process is “in reverse” and the Chinese Communist Party is personally taking action to protect the election
At that time had met with the then deputy director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office Li Gang, the Democratic Party’s former legislator Emily Lau said that Beijing’s move is obvious to block the democratic faction, comprehensive governance of Hong Kong, that the democratic faction and the Chinese Communist Party is now “completely broken” relationship, coupled with the democratic faction is now in a weak position, the Chinese Communist Party does not need to look at the relationship between the two sides, the communication scene is no longer.
Emily Lau: “Now it is completely impossible to communicate, the central government is completely unwilling to communicate, and now they think that dialogue is ‘weakness’. Now (District Council) let you opposition control, so cancel you. There are no more rules at all. Now (the pro-democracy camp) is at the mercy of others, the best you can do is to flee, I don’t need to discuss with you, that’s the attitude.”
Emily Lau added that the Chief Executive election is approaching, the Chinese Communist Party fears that the election is out of control, seeing that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam is unable to deal with the chaos in Hong Kong, so they want to take action themselves.
Emily Lau: “Carrie Lam got into trouble last year. Look at the newly formed Bauhinia Party, are considered to be the cause of the whole incident, leading to have anti-government protests. Last November’s Third Plenary Session, there has been rumored to be handled by them, that is, full governance. Xi Jinping is different from Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao’s approach, he wants full governance and absolute control. And when it got like this last year, neither Carrie Lam nor the pro-communist groups were able to handle it properly, it had to be that way.”
Emily Lau has repeatedly stressed during her visits that although it is what has happened, Hong Kong people still need to hold on to their dignity and their desire for democracy and freedom, and insist on fighting to the end.
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