(Beijing) Remove pro-democracy opposition from power in Hong Kong: less than a year after imposing its national security law on the former British colony, the Chinese parliament is preparing to reform the electoral system in the territory autonomous.
Posted on March 4, 2021 at 9:49 a.m.
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For several weeks, pro-Beijing experts, political leaders and the central government had raised the idea of a reform in order to ensure, according to the repeated formula, that “patriots rule Hong Kong”.
The deputies of the National People’s Congress (PNA), meeting from Friday in annual plenary session in Beijing, will study a proposal to “improve the electoral system of Hong Kong”, announced Thursday the news agency New China.
No details have yet been provided on the nature of this reform project. The ANP is entirely controlled by the communist power and its adoption by the Chinese deputies is hardly in doubt.
It paves the way for the probable marginalization of opposition pro-democracy candidates in Hong Kong.
In Beijing’s sights probably: the district councilors, very largely affiliated with the pro-democracy opposition, following a ballot lost by the pro-Beijing local government at the end of 2019.
National security
The reform should focus on the designation of the local parliament, where a convoluted system already almost certainly guarantees a majority for the pro-Beijing bloc.
This parliament is due for renewal next September.
The reform announcement comes nearly a year after a national security law in Hong Kong was imposed on the former British colony by Beijing following huge protests in 2019 against an extradition law and the communist regime.
According to China, the national security law has helped restore calm, prevent foreign “interference” and suppress the local current militant for independence, which is an absolute red line for power.
In practice, the law has since helped to muzzle or arrest many opposition figures. And according to its detractors, it has led to an unprecedented decline in freedoms since the surrender of Hong Kong to China by the United Kingdom in 1997.
Unlike mainland China ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the territory theoretically enjoys free speech, press freedom, and independent justice.
« Oppression »
Hong Kong, populated by some 7 million people, has never enjoyed extensive democracy, either under British colonization or since the handover to China.
But the city allows a combative opposition to win seats in some local elections.
In recent years, however, the authorities have multiplied the procedures for disqualifying candidates or elected pro-democracy Legco, on the basis of their political opinions or poorly pronounced oaths.
The head of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong executive, Carrie Lam, in February welcomed the idea of electoral reform and rejected criticism denouncing a new “oppression” of the Hong Kong opposition.
“If we have to use the word oppression, then yes, it is oppression aimed at those who advocate Hong Kong independence, who try to push Hong Kong into the abyss of violence, who forget their origins, do not see themselves as Chinese, who come to terms with foreign political organizations to destroy Hong Kong, ”she told reporters.
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