Loyalty to the Communist Party of China will be a key criterion in determining whether a Hong Konger can be considered a “patriot,” a senior Chinese official in Hong Kong said Tuesday, March 9, as Beijing authorities reform Hong Kong’s electoral system to exclude democrats.
A meeting of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing is said to vote this Thursday on reforming Hong Kong’s election law to give the NPC Standing Committee the possibility of drafting Hong Kong laws. Beijing authorities claim that only patriots are eligible to be elected in Hong Kong.
Asked whether “patriotism” meant loyalty to the Communist Party, as in mainland China, Song Ru’an, deputy commissioner of Beijing’s Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong, said, “When we talk about patriotism, we don’t mean love for a cultural and historical China, but love for the present People’s Republic of China under the leadership of the Communist Party of China,” AFP reported today.
“Patriots must respect the Communist Party of China,” he added, … “We will examine whether the candidates meet these criteria.”
This reform of Hong Kong’s electoral system will allow Beijing to exclude Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition candidates. Beijing believes this is necessary to restore Hong Kong’s stability as a financial center.
China has silenced all dissenting voices in Hong Kong following the huge pro-democracy demonstrations that shook the city for months in 2019.
However, when the former British colony was handed over to mainland China by London, Beijing had guaranteed that Hong Kong would enjoy a degree of autonomy and freedom that mainland China did not have until 2047.
Beijing’s current reform of Hong Kong’s electoral system has been described as “only patriots can govern Hong Kong. AFP said the phrase was used by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1984 to reassure Hong Kong people. At the Time, Hong Kong people feared the end of political pluralism in Hong Kong after the 1997 handover to mainland China. Deng explained at the time that only patriots could rule Hong Kong meant that Hong Kong people were part of China and had to support China’s prosperity, but did not necessarily have to be loyal to the (Communist) Party.
However, Mr. Song Ru’an assured that China was not trying to establish a “great unification government” in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is “a pluralistic society where East meets West.
But he warned that anyone who challenges the basic institutions of the state and undermines the constitutional order of Hong Kong is not a true patriot.
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