China’s Parliament backs proposal to ‘improve’ Hong Kong’s electoral system

President Xi Jinping cast his vote during the closing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday, March 11, 2021. China’s ceremonial legislature approved the ruler’s latest measure on Thursday. Communist Party to strengthen control. on Hong Kong by reducing the role of its public in choosing the territory’s leaders. AP

Beijing: China’s ceremonial legislature on Thursday backed the ruling Communist Party’s decision to tighten control over Hong Kong by reducing the role of its public in choosing the territory’s leaders.

The move led to condemnation by Britain and the United States and accusations that it will disenfranchise the people of Hong Kong. He joins the crackdown on a protest movement in Hong Kong calling for greater democracy. The crackdown has sparked accusations that Beijing is eroding the autonomy it promised when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997 and is damaging its status as a global financial center.

Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong has added to irritations in China’s relations with Washington, Europe and other governments that also include trade, technology and the party’s treatment of ethnic minorities.

The National People’s Congress voted 2,895-0, with one abstention, in support of the plan to give a pro-Beijing committee power to appoint more Hong Kong lawmakers, reducing the number of voters elected. Members of the NPC, who are appointed by the party, routinely back the party’s plans by unanimous vote or by overwhelming majorities.

President Xi Jinping and other leaders sat on the stage in front of the delegates as they cast their votes electronically in the cavernous Great Hall of the People. The APN has no real powers, but the party uses its annual meeting, the highest-profile political event of the year, to showcase the government’s plans and important decisions.

The NPC also backed the ruling party’s latest five-year development plan, which calls for intensifying efforts to transform China into a more self-sufficient technology creator. That threatens to worsen tensions with Washington and Europe over trade and market access.

The NPC focuses on domestic issues, but is increasingly overshadowed by geopolitics as the Xi government pursues more assertive trade and strategic policies and disputes with the US, Australia and others over the issue. coronavirus , conflicting claims about the South China Sea and accusations of espionage and technology theft.

Also on Thursday, the country’s second leader, Prime Minister Li Keqiang, said that economic growth could be faster than this year’s official target of “more than 6 percent” that he announced last week, surprising people. forecasters expecting an expansion of at least 8 percent. But he said Beijing is more concerned with reaffirming its recovery from the coronavirus and keep growth stable.

China was the only major economy to grow last year, while the United States, Europe and Japan struggled with renewed coronavirus sprouts. Chinese growth accelerated to 6.5 percent from the previous year in the final quarter of 2020.

“There may be even faster growth,” Li told a news conference. However, he said, “we must avoid abrupt changes in economic performance.”

As an anti-virus measure, the prime minister sat in the Great Hall and spoke via video link to reporters at a media center 4 miles (6.5 kilometers) away. Reporters had to arrive nine hours in advance to be evaluated coronavirus and wait in the hotel rooms for the results.

Under the changes in Hong Kong, a 1,500-member Election Committee will elect the territory’s executive director and an unspecified “relatively large” number of members from its 90-seat legislature.

The committee members would come from five segments of society, including business and political personalities. That would give the pro-Beijing forces more influence than a popular vote would. Hong Kong news reports previously said the committee will select a third of the members of the Legislative Council, or LegCo.

Beijing wants to see “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” the prime minister said. He said the changes “will safeguard national security” in the territory and support “prosperity and stability.”

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the move is “contrary to promises made by China itself” on Hong Kong. He said Beijing is trying to “empty” a space for democratic debate.

“This can only further undermine confidence that China will meet its international responsibilities and legal obligations, as a leading member of the international community,” Raab said in a statement.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the NPC’s decision was a direct attack on the autonomy that China had previously promised to the Hong Kong people and contradicted the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s constitution. “These actions deny Hong Kongers a voice in their own government by limiting political participation, reducing democratic representation and stifling political debate,” Blinken said in a statement from Washington.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam welcomed the change, saying in a statement that it will allow the territory to “solve the LegCo problem by making everything political in recent years and effectively tackle reckless moves or internal breakdown. they have torn Hong Kong apart. ” Besides.”

Last year, the party used the NPC session to impose a national security law in Hong Kong in response to protests that began in 2019. Under that law, 47 former legislators and other pro-democracy figures have been arrested on charges of subversion that carry a possible maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

“The people of Hong Kong will be deprived of their rights” with the latest changes, said Emily Lau, a former Hong Kong lawmaker.

“Beijing wants to exercise very strict control,” said Lau, a member of the city’s Democratic Party. “It is not democracy.”

Lau said the concerns expressed by some Chinese officials about a possible attempt to overthrow the government are overblown.

“The people of Hong Kong are not going to have independence or overthrow the government. No way,” he said. “What they should do is compromise, listen to the voices of the Hong Kong people so that we can have a dialogue and come to a consensus on how to move forward, rather than just falling on us like a ton of bricks.”