As China’s nominal top legislature, the National People’s Congress, convenes this week, the Communist Party authorities are giving clear signals that they want to make significant changes to Hong Kong‘s electoral system to ensure what the Communist Party calls “patriots rule Hong Kong. The news has led observers to fear that the “one country, two systems” promised to Hong Kong by the Chinese Communist Party will be completely and utterly transformed into one country, one system.
Amid a crackdown on pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers in Hong Kong, including arrests and trials on charges, changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system that would reserve the right to participate only for “patriots” recognized by the Chinese Communist Party authorities have again narrowed the space for democracy activists and dissidents to operate and speak.
Reuters reported from Hong Kong on Tuesday (March 2) that such news has also led some pro-Beijing activists to fear that they are outclassed by a new wave of ambitious pro-Beijing activists.
The official authority on the so-called “patriots ruling Hong Kong” was first published in the March issue of the official publication Bauhinia magazine in the form of a speech by Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council. Xia said, “On January 27, when listening to the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s presentation of her duties in 2020, President Xi Jinping stressed that the significant turnaround from chaos to governance in Hong Kong has once again demonstrated a profound truth: to ensure that the practice of ‘one country, two systems’ is stable and far-reaching, we must always adhere to the principle of ‘patriots ruling Hong Kong’. Must always adhere to the ‘patriots rule Hong Kong'”.
Xia Baolong went on to say, “What is ‘patriotism ruled by Hong Kong’? In short, ‘patriots rule Hong Kong’ means that Hong Kong should be governed by patriots after the return to the motherland, and the power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region should be in the hands of patriots. Anyone with a little knowledge of the history of the return of Hong Kong will know that this is not some new concept or interpretation, but the original intention of the Chinese Communist Party in proposing the ‘one country, two systems’ policy.”
Xia Baolong, once a veteran Xi Jinping subordinate, caused controversy by presiding over the major demolition of a Christian church cross in Zhejiang. Observers have pointed out that Xia’s claim that “patriots rule Hong Kong” is clearly untrue, as the Communist Party has previously stated that its policy toward Hong Kong is “one country, two systems, and Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong. Patriots ruling Hong Kong means a major departure from the principle of “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong”.
Xia did not elaborate on the definition of what he called “patriots” or what the criteria are for judging them. In today’s official Chinese discourse, a so-called “patriot” must be someone who loves the CCP, and to love the CCP, one must have the “four consciousnesses” (i.e., strong “political consciousness, awareness of the overall situation, core consciousness, and awareness of alignment”) and the “two consciousnesses”. “) and “two safeguards” (“safeguarding Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the core of the Party, and safeguarding the authority and centralized leadership of the Party Central Committee”).
To critics and advocates of the CCP, the most typical patriot in the eyes of the Xi-led CCP authorities is Shen Jilan, the longest-serving deputy to China’s National People’s Congress. The late Shen Jilan was personally awarded the “Republican” medal by Xi Jinping in 2019.
Shen said her secret to political participation as a NPC deputy since the 1950s was not to vote against her. Critics say that one of the major reasons why the Communist regime has repeatedly wreaked havoc on China over the past 70 years or so is that there are too many of these so-called people’s deputies who merely pander to the wishes of the top and do not reflect public opinion.
Reuters reports that further shaping Hong Kong’s electoral process to Beijing’s liking has also worried some pro-Beijing advocates. They believe such an approach could go too far and ultimately hurt Hong Kong. The report quoted Shao Shanbo, a former chief adviser to the Central Policy Unit, a pro-Beijing Hong Kong government advisory body, as saying, “Don’t go too far and [treat the disease only to kill] the patient.”
Details of how Beijing will overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system are not yet clear. But Hong Kong’s English-language South China Morning Post published a report on March 1 saying that sources told the newspaper that Beijing’s central government wants to abolish all 117 District Council seats.
Pro-democracy advocates won a majority of the seats in the last Hong Kong District Council elections held in November 2019.
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