Hong Kong: China’s parliament approves election improvement plan

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Members of the Beijing National People’s Congress voted 2,895 in favor of the proposal, with no votes against and one abstention.

The adoption of the “draft decision” was considered almost inevitable after the Chinese government announced plans to reorganize the Hong Kong electoral system earlier this month. The votes in the CNP are considered largely ceremonial, the parliament not being voted against the legislation presented by the country’s leaders.

The stated purpose of the draft amendments, which came on the closing day of the annual meeting, is to ensure that only “patriots” govern Hong Kong, a definition that Chinese officials have made clear requires not only loyalty to the country, but also loyalty to the Communist Party.

“When we talk about patriotism, we are not talking about the abstraction of loving a cultural or historical China, but rather of loving the current People’s Republic of China under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party,” said Song Ru’an, deputy commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. China’s Hong Kong Foreign Ministry told reporters this week in a briefing about the law change.

“Patriots should respect the Chinese Communist Party,” he added.

The decision includes a plan to change the size and composition of the city’s legislature, increasing the number of seats from 70 to 90, thus reducing the overall percentage of democratically elected officials.

The Electoral Committee, a body that is currently responsible for selecting the city’s chief executive, will be expanded from 1,200 to 1,500 members and will have the authority to nominate candidates for the legislature, as well as the power to nominate about a third of the body seats. . The other third will be taken over by the so-called functional constituencies, which are chosen by commercial and industrial bodies.

Speaking last week, NPC spokesman Zhang Yesui said the 2019 riots, during which Hong Kong was shaken by often violent anti-government protests, “showed that the electoral system needs to be improved” in order to ensure that it “governs the patriots.”

Following the unrest, pro-democracy candidates won a landslide in the local elections and were expected to build on this performance in the parliamentary elections scheduled for September 2020.

However, these elections were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the government has since moved to prosecute dozens of prominent pro-democracy politicians for running in a primary vote before the initial election date.

Prosecutors say the opposition seeks to gain enough seats to block the government’s budget and possibly force the chief executive to resign, a previous plan in line with the city’s constitution, but has since been deemed contrary to a national security law imposed on the city. last year by Beijing.

If they avoid the potential decade or more in prison that the law provides for those found guilty of “subversion”, it will be difficult for activists and former persecuted parliamentarians to reintroduce politics under the new requirements.

Already last year, several candidates were prevented from running for office by recruiting officers, based on a perceived lack of patriotism or alleged violation of national security law, which also criminalized “secession” and “collusion with foreign forces.” .

Speaking this week, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said that “there is no so-called international standard of democracy. Every democracy must look in the right context of that country or place.”

“We are improving the electoral system by making sure that whoever governs and administers Hong Kong in the future is someone who loves the country, who loves Hong Kong,” she added.

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