China’s National People’s Congress passed changes to Hong Kong‘s electoral system on Thursday. AFP reported that, ignoring warnings from Europe and the United States, some 3,000 members of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) raised their hands to approve the reform of Hong Kong’s electoral system, with no one voting against it and only one abstaining.
Many observers agree that the change is tantamount to completely blocking the way for Hong Kong democrats to enter the parliament, and that among the nine decisions announced by the NPC, the first is “patriots ruling Hong Kong”, which analysts believe is tantamount to extracting the “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” core of the Basic Law. Analysts believe this is tantamount to extracting the kernel of “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” as stipulated in the Basic Law and reneging on Beijing‘s own promise of 50 years of unchanged “one country, two systems”.
Cited by AFP, the commentary points out that by amending the electoral system, Beijing has further extended its systematic control over Hong Kong after introducing a ‘Hong Kong version of the National Security Law‘ in place of the Legislative Council. The newly passed law aims to increase the role of the “Election Committee,” which is subservient to Beijing and can already directly appoint more than half of the legislators. The amendments ensure that the Beijing authorities have a majority in the Legislative Council at all times.
In addition to the nine amendments made by the Chinese National People’s Congress, the core of which is the rule of patriots, the Election Committee, which is responsible for nominating Hong Kong’s Chief Executive and Legislative Council members, will be increased from four to five sectors, and its number will be increased from 1,200 to 1,500, with 300 new seats filled by pro-China members of the Hong Kong National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference; candidates for the Chief Executive must be jointly nominated by not less than 188 members of the Election Committee, and not less than five members from each of the five sectors will be nominated. Not less than 15 members from each sector shall participate in the nomination.
The number of Legislative Council seats for Legislative Council members has been expanded from the current 70 seats to 90 seats, to be elected through the Election Committee election, functional constituency elections, and direct elections in three ways: the original 70 seats, 35 seats directly elected, and 35 seats in functional constituencies, the latter except for 5 seats can be nominated and run by elected district councilors, the other seats the pro-establishment camp dominates. According to the original mechanism, if the democratic camp gets more than one-third of the votes, it can constitute a “critical minority” in the Legislative Council and may overturn the authorities if they want to implement a generally controversial proposal. But with the additional seats, the proportion of direct elections has been reduced.
Another key decision is the establishment of a candidacy committee to ensure that the qualifications of CE and LegCo candidates comply with the Hong Kong Basic Law and the Hong Kong National Security Law. This candidacy review committee has great power to review the eligibility of candidates, which was only based on compliance with the Basic Law, but now also on compliance with the Hong Kong version of the national security law. Obviously, after the reform, the selection of Hong Kong’s Chief Executive and the majority of Legislative Council members will be dominated by the government, and it will be difficult for the opposition in Hong Kong to play a role of check and balance in the Legislative Council.
Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam welcomed the decision in high profile, saying it was “fully constitutional and legal” and that “the political system is a central authority, and the electoral system is an important part of it”, and that she and the SAR government’s control team supported and appreciated the decision. Other senior officials of the SAR government also echoed the sentiment.
But Hong Kong Democratic Party Chairman Law Kin-hei argued that Beijing’s approach has made Hong Kong’s parliament even less representative, even less supportive of public opinion, and even less representative of public opinion. It is a very significant loss to Hong Kong. Emily Lau, former chairwoman of the Hong Kong Democratic Party, believes that the nine decisions are not just a blow to the democratic camp in Hong Kong, but a blow to Hong Kong and to one country, two systems in general. In particular, she cannot understand the principle of “patriots ruling Hong Kong”, as she considers herself and all democrats to be patriots.
Taiwan‘s Land Commission criticized the revision of Hong Kong’s electoral system as “party lovers ruling Hong Kong,” and Land Commission Deputy Director Chiu Chui-ching said, “The Chinese Communist Party‘s promotion of patriots ruling Hong Kong is actually the Chinese Communist Party ruling Hong Kong directly, which is the so-called ‘party lovers ruling Hong Kong. In fact, Beijing has made no secret of this.
In fact, Beijing has made no secret of this. What is the meaning of “patriots ruling Hong Kong”? Song Ru’an, the special commissioner of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong, explained, “When we talk about patriotism, we do not 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. Patriots must respect the Communist Party of China,” he added, … “We will examine whether the candidates meet these criteria.”
Observers were surprised to learn that the Communist Party of China (CPC), which preaches nationalism by paying lip service to “China’s thousands of years of civilization …… and claims territory by saying that it has belonged to China since ancient times,” is now forcing people to submit to the CPC in order to control Hong Kong. Now, in order to control Hong Kong and force people to submit to the CCP, the cultural and historical China is cut off from the China that has been ruled by the CCP for decades, and the country is mixed up with the one party that rules this country.
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