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China said on Friday it would revamp Hong Kong’s electoral system to tighten its grip on the city, a strong movement against democratic governance and freedoms in the region that has drawn backlash from critics abroad.
Beijing’s parliament, known as the National People’s Congress (NPC), met on Friday for the first day of its week-long annual meetings. He unveiled a bill that would “improve” Hong Kong’s electoral system by changing the size, composition and formation of the city’s electoral committee, which elects its top leader. The committee would also have wider space to select a large chunk of Hong Kong’s legislative body, as well as nominate candidates, giving Beijing even more extensive control over Hong Kong politics, according to analysts.
The plan marks a “direct attack” and a “continuing assault” on Hong Kong’s autonomy and democratic processes, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Friday. It will almost certainly be approved by the APN later this week.
The move comes a year after China bypassed the city’s legislative processes to impose a widely criticized national security law.
On Friday, before the proposed new legislation was announced, Premiere Li Keqiang paved the way by issuing a warning to naysayers in a speech, saying China “will resolutely protect itself and deter interference from outside forces” in Hong Kong.
Li also unveiled China’s next five-year plan, the country’s development roadmap to 2025. The document says Beijing will increase annual spending on research and development by 7% every year, a sign of its commitment to become more and more self-sufficient. in the midst of competition and confrontations with countries like the United States on technological issues.
Li set a growth target of more than 6% by 2021, a rate that is not considered a tranche for the world’s second-largest economy even though it experienced its weakest growth in more than four decades last year due to the pandemic, only 2.3%.
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