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Beijing says no one who “goes against China and disrupts Hong Kong” should be allowed to take office in the semi-autonomous city.
Hong Kong CEO Carrie Lam has backed Beijing’s plans to ensure that “patriots” rule the city, saying they were necessary to stop the hatred of China and uphold the “one country, two systems” governance model. “for the semi-autonomous territory.
His remarks, made at a regular weekly press conference on Tuesday, come a day after a key member of China’s cabinet pointed out changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system designed to further marginalize pro-democracy opposition in the institutions of the city.
Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, said that Hong Kong can only be ruled by “patriots,” a term he says includes people who love China, its constitution and the Communist Party and excludes anti-China “rioters.”
“In all circumstances, key posts should not be taken over by anyone ‘going against China and disrupting Hong Kong,'” Xia said.
“Those who oppose the patriots are destroyers of the principle of ‘one country, two systems’ and should not be allowed to take a part of the political power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Not now, not ever, “he added.
The measures would further solidify the authoritarian turn Hong Kong has taken since Beijing’s imposition of a comprehensive national security law in June 2020 and the arrest of most of its prominent politicians and democratic activists. The law was introduced in response to huge pro-democracy protests that sometimes escalated into violence in 2019.
Lam relied on Xia’s comments on Tuesday, saying that protests demanding democracy or blocking proposed legislation by various pro-Beijing governments had stoked “hatred” against Beijing and the Hong Kong government.
“This series of incidents worried the central government and, of course, for me, as CEO, it is also worrying,” Lam told reporters.
“To prevent the situation from getting worse to the point that ‘one country, two systems’ can hardly be implemented, problems must be addressed at the central government level.”
The changes, likely to be announced in March, are expected to impose restrictions on who can stand for legislative elections and lead to the disqualification of most lower-level district councilors, most of them politicians in favor of the democracy that won a great victory in elections in November 2019.
The South China Morning Post newspaper said the reforms would mark “the most significant restructuring of the city’s political and administrative systems” since Britain returned the territory to China in 1997.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of US-based Human Rights Watch, said the measures mean that China only wants “toads of the Chinese Communist Party” to be able to run for office in Hong Kong.
“Another nail in the coffin of any semblance of democracy in Hong Kong,” he said in a tweet.
The new rules could further skew the composition of a 1,200-member committee, which elects the city’s leader in favor of the pro-Beijing camp.
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