The annual session of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) will close on Thursday (March 11). Although the “Decision of the National People’s Congress on Improving the Electoral System of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Draft)” is on the agenda for Monday morning (March 8), the relevant provisions and details of its implementation have not been made public yet (March 9), just like the Hong Kong version of the National Security Law passed in July last year, and it is obvious that the general public in Hong Kong is not going to be consulted. It is clear that there is no intention to consult the general public.
In response, some observers from Hong Kong and Taiwan said that the CCP’s black-box operation is “absurd” and completely deprives Hong Kong people of their autonomy, and that reforming the election system to ensure the election of Hong Kong people approved by the CCP is simply a form of “institutional electoral fraud” or “structural majority violence. “It will only backfire and make the majority of Hong Kong people more resentful of the Chinese Communist system.
Hong Kong’s business community is saying that this is a “fake democracy” in which the Chinese Communist Party is “pretentious”, and it is likely to lead to another wave of emigration of Hong Kong people or the withdrawal of multinational companies from Hong Kong. SBI Holdings, Japan’s largest online securities brokerage firm and the first Japanese company listed in Hong Kong, announced on Monday (March 8) that it plans to withdraw its operations from Hong Kong because of the implementation of the National Security Law in Hong Kong and “no freedom, no financial business”, as one example.
NPC raids to revamp Hong Kong’s electoral system
Chinese scholars say that no matter how much criticism there is, the Chinese government is determined to pursue “one country, two systems”, which means that Hong Kong can only be ruled by those who love the party and love the country. But in this development, Chinese dissidents say Hong Kong has already been mainlandized, and that future democrats in the territory will only be able to play the role of “vase embellishments for fake democracy.
According to a number of Hong Kong media reports, China may increase the number of seats in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council from the current 70 to 90, with the additional 20 seats likely to be filled directly by members of the Chief Executive Election Committee. In addition, it is likely that the number of seats in the district councils, known as “super district councils”, will be abolished. Second, the size of the Chief Executive Election Committee may be increased from the current 1,200 to 1,500 members, with nearly 100 members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) automatically becoming members of the Election Committee to ensure that “patriots,” as defined by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), are in the majority, or that their handpicked candidate will not be overthrown.
In addition, the Chinese Communist Party may set up a Qualifications Committee for candidates in Hong Kong to eliminate those who are not suitable in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party. Zhang Jian, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Research Office of the Institute of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Studies at the Shanghai Institute of International Studies, has previously told VOA that the NPC has disqualified Hong Kong independent legislators from election on an “emergency basis” in the past, but in the future, there will be a regular institutional practice to make anti-China activists, such as pro-independence candidates, ineligible to run for election and have access to the regime. No.
Observers: Ridiculous Fake Democracy
Zeng Jianyuan, chairman of the board of directors of the Taipei-based Institute for Chinese Democracy, described the Chinese National People’s Congress’ surprise “electoral transformation” of Hong Kong as “absurd.
In an interview with the Voice of America, he said that according to the Hong Kong Basic Law and the principle of “a high degree of autonomy” enjoyed by Hong Kong, any changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system should be made with the participation of all Hong Kong people. The Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC) have only consulted nearly 40 Hong Kong deputies and then changed the electoral system on behalf of the nearly 7.5 million people in Hong Kong, without even announcing the contents of the bill to the people of Hong Kong, he said. authorization.”
Tsang said, “It only pursues a so-called majority form, but lacks the consultation and deliberation process required for democracy. This is not called democracy, it is only a majority form of a …… Even we say that this is a kind of structural violence, majority violence. Because he did not let the dissenters have the opportunity to make an expression or make a record.”
Tsang Kin-yuen said it is not the temperament of a great nation for the Chinese Communist Party to repeatedly wall off opposition voices and deny them an outlet. Moreover, the Chinese Communist Party cuts public opinion in Hong Kong and only recognizes “party lovers, party appendages or lackeys. In his opinion, this will only lead to a backlash, but will make the dissidents gather towards the opposite side of the system. If a majority force is objectively formed in the future, it will certainly accumulate a political energy that is sufficient to overthrow the system, and once it breaks out, it will impact the long-term stability of Hong Kong’s system.
Hong Kong people may boycott the vote
He believes that the Chinese Communist Party’s surprise attack on Hong Kong’s electoral system will backfire in the future, because the recent wave of emigration proves that some Hong Kong people have already cast their votes with their feet, and those who remain behind may adopt a “no-registration-vote” approach to boycott or humiliate the Chinese Communist Party’s birdcage democracy and electoral system in Hong Kong.
He said, “The people of Hong Kong will replace the real free and secret (anonymous) voting with registered voting, and they will express their attitude towards the system directly, whether they register or not. Therefore, the election results will become meaningless. (It becomes) a small election in which only supporters of the Chinese Communist Party participate, but this is the real birdcage (democracy), which is certainly not democracy .”
He said that the Chinese Communist Party does not dare to have a fair, open and truly democratic election with the democrats in Hong Kong because it has a “sore loser mentality”. This is “institutional fraud”, or even “structural majority violence”.
Institutional Election Fraud
In an interview with the Voice of America, the president of a major Hong Kong securities firm, who asked not to be named, described the Chinese National People’s Congress’ electoral transformation of Hong Kong as “hypocritical sycophancy.
That’s the Communist Party’s way,” he said, “to make sure you know in advance who’s going to be elected. It’s a fake election, a fake democracy.”
He added that Hong Kong people’s open rebellion against the Chinese Communist Party has made Chinese President Xi Jinping‘s regime increasingly uneasy, because as soon as Hong Kong is in chaos, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen on the mainland will follow, which the Chinese Communist Party cannot tolerate, “because democracy and the Communist Party cannot coexist.” .
Hong Kong jails political prisoners
The president of the securities company said, “There is no way, the dictator (CCP) can’t face public opinion, because it is so obvious that at least one million people in Hong Kong are Anti-Communist, and they (CCP) can see it. Because, since 2019 (Hong Kong people) almost every week demonstrations, the real meaning is anti-communist.”
He said the phenomenon of “elites ruling Hong Kong”, which Hong Kong people fear most, has emerged. He said Hong Kong may never have had true electoral democracy, but it still enjoys “limited freedom,” but now with the implementation of the overly criminalized National Security Law, which allows those in power to plant evidence for no good reason and imprison nearly 40 “political prisoners” who are completely innocent, Hong Kong is already under a Cultural Revolution-style attack. Hong Kong is already suffering from a Cultural Revolution-style attack.
In particular, he said, if the Chinese Communist Party appoints former Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying back as the Chief Executive next year, “it will cause Hong Kong people to run into the sea of anger” because, he said, Leung will definitely invoke the National Security Law to eliminate opposition voices.
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Boat People” is a 1980s refugee film based on the fall of the Republic of Vietnam, the last in Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s “Vietnam Trilogy”.
The president of the securities company said he expects that the NPC’s adoption of Hong Kong’s electoral reform plan may trigger another wave of immigration, and will also affect Hong Kong’s business environment, because the National Security Law has created an unfettered and unsafe business environment. He said that in addition to The Japanese Sippo Yoshi Holdings, which has already decided to pull out of Hong Kong, he heard that Australia is also likely to pull out its journalists based in Hong Kong soon.
However, he said, unfortunately, most businessmen are only concerned about making money and do not want any unrest, so they are also not at all willing to show solidarity with this unjust system. He added that the Communist Party’s unilateral agenda is to focus on the economy, hoping that if the economy improves, the people will not want to oppose the Communist Party and the dictatorship, but this is a “naive idea.
A Chinese dissident based in Guangzhou is also pessimistic about the development of democracy in Hong Kong.
Dissident: Performative democracy
He said, speaking on condition of anonymity, that the Communist Party of China (CPC) is transplanting “show-style fake democratic elections to Hong Kong, while retaining directly elected seats that are not decisive, just like the famous (but not real) ‘democratic parties’ on the mainland that have become vases for fake democracy.”
He said the continentalization of Hong Kong has become inevitable and the past model and experience of Hong Kong’s protests are difficult to reproduce, and that the mentality of Hong Kong’s civil society has been somewhat unbalanced in the past six months, with democrats running away, conceding and losing their spirit, which needs to be adjusted as soon as possible. He said, in view of the experience of Chinese dissidents’ resistance, in the future, Hong Kong will have to enter the way and means of underground resistance.
He added that Hong Kong is paying the financial price for the Chinese Communist Party’s model of governance, “because financial capital needs a completely free and open market system, and Hong Kong will be overtaken by other competitors in the Asia-Pacific region when it loses this (advantage).”
He believes that unless the international community takes a unified anti-communist line, the price the CCP will have to pay for tightening Hong Kong control may not be too great, “because the international community’s appeasement policy, profit-eating and capital greed ultimately dictate that they will not change their attitude toward China.”
In an interview with the Voice of America, Shen Dingli, deputy director of the Institute of International Studies at Fudan University, said that even though the international community believes that Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” has been transformed into “one country, one system” since the implementation of the National Security Law in July last year, the Chinese government believes that it has done something to protect Hong Kong’s interests. “But the Chinese government believes that what it is doing is upholding “one country, two systems”.
All for the Love of the Party
Shen Dingli said: “China believes that no matter one country, two systems, or one country, one system, it is the leadership of mainland China, the leadership of the Communist Party, only then is called patriotic, love of the country must love the Party, love of the Party must love the country, love of the country must be led by the mainland. So, don’t go on about one country, two systems, one country, one system, now it’s about loving the party, that’s all.”
Regarding the CCP’s strategy of leaving the island in Hong Kong without people, Shen Dingli said that the CCP believes that those who are patriotic stay and those who are not patriotic all leave, which is better and more convenient for the future governance of the CCP.
As for the possible international backlash over Hong Kong and the hostile atmosphere of resistance to China, Shen Dingli said he was not at liberty to share his own views and could only quote China’s official position, saying: “China believes that I am number one in the world, awesome my country, I am number one in the world, I am not afraid of you. Belt and Road more than 130 countries have signed docking agreements, so many countries like me (China), my vaccine is sent out everywhere, which has what hostility (hostility), everywhere is friendship (friendly countries).”
Shen Dingli admits that Hong Kong, like China, is not free. However, he said, he is different from the Hong Kong people who have left because he wants to stay firmly in China, hoping that China will be free one day.
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