China is stepping up its crackdown on Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement this time around, taking steps to remake the region’s election rules to guarantee the power of Beijing’s loyalists.
China’s National People’s Congress passed the new rules into law by an almost unanimous vote during its annual meeting this week.
The direct target of the change is how elections are held in Hong Kong, ensuring that pro-Beijing loyalists have an advantage in any election and pro-democracy politicians (who have not yet been arrested) sideline it.
The goal, according to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, is to ensure that there are only “patriots who rule Hong Kong.” It moves the region even further away from the promise of true universal suffrage, one of the demands of the 2019 protests.
This electoral reshuffle, awaiting national security legislation this summer, is a sign that China is committed to cementing its control over the city-state, which Beijing is doing to stifle pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. It is an effort that has moved forward in 2019 in the wake of a massive and sustained move by the pro-democracy movement.
Experts say this is another erosion of a recent move, “One Country, Two Systems”, a principle that will rule Hong Kong’s semi-independence until 2047. “One country” means it is officially part of China, while part of “two systems” gives it a degree of autonomy, including rights such as freedom of the press that are absent in mainland China.
“‘One country, two systems’ is over,” Carl Minzer, a Chinese law expert at Fordham University Law School, told me in an email. “Politically, like Hong Kong, we know it’s over.”
Here’s how Hong Kong came about
Protests erupted in Hong Kong in 2019 in response to a controversial extradition bill, with critics fearing the Chinese government could arbitrarily detain Hong Kongers. The fight for the law has led to months of protests, some tensions and violence.
The bill was withdrawn in September 2019, but by then the protests had turned into a major fight for the future of Hong Kong and its democratic institutions.
The number of protesters increased due to the action taken by the Hong Kong government and police against the protest. In November 2019, pro-democracy candidates won a landslide victory in the local district council elections, seen as a clear rebuke of Hong Kong’s (and China’s) leadership.
Coronavirus epidemics and social-distance restrictions stabilized public performance until 2020. Then, in the summer, China directly interfered with the approval of a clear national security law, targeting vaguely defined activities such as volatile definition, isolation, terrorism and terrorism. Foreign Military – Basically anything can be interpreted as weakening the Chinese Communist Party.
This was seen as a “death sentence” for Hong Kong’s democratic freedoms and semi-independence from mainland China. These crimes were so broadly and vaguely defined that many feared that if anyone criticized the Hong Kong authorities or the Chinese government or was seen as a very outspoken person, they would be armed.
It has begun to happen. Dozens of pro-democracy individuals were arrested earlier this year under the law. In February, 47 people were formally charged with violating national security laws and conspiring to sabotage. His crime? To participate and help in holding unofficial primary elections for the postponed Legislative Council elections.
Now, China is running with these new rules directly after this election. This is an attempt to counter any influence left by the pro-democracy opposition.
What we know about Hong Kong’s election rule is changing
One change includes the election of Hong Kong’s chief executive, scheduled for 2022. (The current chief executive is Kerry Lum, a loyalist from Beijing.) Right now, a 1,200-strong selection committee has selected the chief executive. Like Beijing loyalists, it is already studded, and that election committee will expand by 300 members to 1,500.
That expanded committee will also have a role in selecting new members of the Legislative Council (Legco), which is expected to grow from 70 to 90 members. Legco’s election was due to take place last September, but the Hong Kong government has continued to postpone it, citing the coronavirus epidemic. (About 200 new infections have been reported in Hong Kong in the last 14 days.)
The legislature already has a pro-Beijing majority, and only a few legislators are directly elected, but Beijing plans to reduce those seats, and possibly through the election committee – a group of pro-Beijing members.
All of this is to ensure that those in government in Hong Kong are sufficiently “patriotic” – a gentle way to say that they have proved their sympathy for China.
There are still some details emerging about how these changes will be implemented and when they will be implemented, but the big decision is clear: China wants to curb any influence of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong’s institutions.
The scales were already heavily suggested in favor of the pro-Beijing group in Hong Kong. Now, China is only abolishing the scales simultaneously.
Answering why China is doing it is a tough question. Jack de Lisley, an expert in Chinese law and politics at the Pennsylvania Carrie Law School, told me that there are two principles.
The first is that China constantly sees Hong Kong and its democratic movement as a threat. While that threat may be a bit of an exaggeration, it is the second attempt by President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party to force them to stick to the region.
The other is that China doesn’t really care about the intertwining of the Hong Kong. “This is the attitude of Xi Jinping and the people around him. We are in control here. And we are going to emphasize our authority. We’re doing it in the Mailand, and we certainly won’t be more upset about doing it in Hong Kong. ” Dilis told me.
In some ways, China seems to be learning the lessons of the 2019 District Council elections, which are local conditions that often deal with issues of everyday, quality of life. But the powerful demonstration of the pro-democracy camp proved that they can maintain influence even in Hong Kong’s partial democracy.
All of this is terrible news for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. Although the United States and its partners have condemned China and Xi for the move, the Biden administration and its international partners have limited what they can do to put pressure on Beijing.
Secretary of State Blinken, speaking in the House at this week’s hearing, told lawmakers that the U.S. “needs to continue to comply with sanctions, for example, against those responsible for committing repressive acts in Hong Kong.”
But that is unlikely to counteract China’s recent attempt to open up Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
