A top Chinese official on Monday outlined plans to ensure only "patriots" run Hong Kong as Beijing seeks to neuter any remaining democratic opposition and take a more direct role in how the business hub is run.
The landmark speech by Xia Baolong, head of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, came just two weeks ahead of the annual meeting of China's rubber-stamp legislature as speculation grows that further measures are being planned to sew up control of the city.
"The most vital and pressing task to enforce rule by patriots is to improve the relevant systems, particularly the relevant electoral system," Xia said, according to a speech published by his office. "Being patriotic means loving the People's Republic of China."
Hong Kong has never been a democracy -- something that has fueled years of protests and resentment towards Beijing.
But until recently, the city had a veneer of choice that allowed a small and vibrant opposition to flourish at certain local elections.
After huge and often violent democracy protests swept the city in 2019 -- and opposition politicians won a landslide in district council elections -- Beijing responded with a major crackdown.
At its last annual meeting, China's National People's Congress imposed a sweeping national security law that outlawed much dissent in Hong Kong and radically transformed its relationship with the authoritarian mainland.
Hong Kongers are therefore looking closely at what the next meeting might bring.
Xia's comments suggest Beijing is seeking to ensure no opposition candidates are able to stand in the city's limited elections and come after weeks of calls in China's state media for such a purge.
Authorities, he said, must "close loopholes" that allow "anti-China troublemakers" into politics.
"Improving the relevant electoral system must be led by the central government," he added.
Xia also laid out the criteria for what makes a "real patriot", which included love for the People's Republic of China, its constitution and the Communist Party of China.
He added that members of the judiciary must also be patriots -- a potentially ominous warning for those who fear Beijing is planning to overhaul Hong Kong's independent courts, one of the pillars of its success as a business hub.
Ahead of its 1997 handover by Britain, China agreed to let Hong Kong keep certain liberties and autonomy for 50 years in a model dubbed "One Country, Two Systems".
Western governments and critics accuse Beijing of prematurely shredding that commitment in recent years.
Beijing counters that it is restoring stability. What form electoral reform might take remains to be seen.
Beijing could further ramp up control of the city's half-elected legislature to maintain an even more solid majority for its supporters. It could also go after district council elections -- the only time Hong Kongers get to vote for every seat.
Andrew Leung, the pro-Beijing president of Hong Kong's legislature, told reporters on Monday that Xia was "outlining the red lines for people holding high offices in Hong Kong".
© 2021 AFP
31 Comments
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Burning Bush
The sedition and insurrection rioters have failed.
ulysses
Brutal dictatorship is what is in store for HK.
China will destroy this wonderful place and turn it into the cesspool that the mainland China is!!!
Cricky
Guns beat umbrellas.Fear beats freedom.
Burning Bush
Hong Kongers can still try to storm the main government building and force out the swamp by shear people power.
However, that would most likely fail and then they'd be branded seditionists by the Chinese media and imprisoned.
Status Quo wins pretty easily these days.
u_s__reamer
The Chinese for "patriots" translates properly as "poodles" in English. History will not be kind to the cruel bullies of Beijing.
Jsapc
Hong Kongers are collectively protesting forced the intrusion of a dictatorial governement they never voted for into their democratic process. Not trying to overturn elections their candidate lost fair and square. Can you comprehend the difference? So please do keep the false equivalencies for your Parler account.
finally rich
Soon Google Youtube Facebook etc. banned in HK
Goodlucktoyou
Compromise is better than conflict.
aomorisamurai
@Goodlucktoyou
"Compromise is better than conflict."
CCP: "Nah."
OssanAmerica
Compromise is what Hong Kong had. Until China broke their agreement.
Laguna
China has killed the Golden Goose that was Hong Kong. You can be sure that Taiwanese are watching. So much for "peaceful reunification" in our lifetime.
Burning Bush
This is a subjective analysis.
Who decides which government is legitimate and which is not?
There are a billion Chinese who live in a different media bubble than you do and assert that the Hong Kongers are seditionists.
The crux of your argument is basically, "my media bubble is correct and the other guy's is wrong"
zichi
Patriots= Beijing puppets.
Jsapc
No it isn't.
Fair elections.
No it isn't. The crux of my argument is : "don't equate people fighting against a dictatorship with people fighting for a dictatorship".
I will let you guess on which side "trying to overturn the results of a fair election violent actions based on provable lies" falls on.
Eppee
Burning BushToday 09:31 am JST
In a democracy I assume the majority of citizens.
Joe Blow
Sad to see HK just turn into some random Chinese city now. No one will want to go there for work or tourism anymore. It's dead.
zatoizugoodo
Never going to China, ever....
BigYen
Another jackboot step in the depressing suppression of Hong Kong.
I was just looking yesterday at someone else's photographs of the vibrant street life of the old HK and wishing like hell that I'd gone and experienced it for myself years ago when I had the chance. I wouldn't go now for all the tea in China. That's gallows humour - seems to me Hong Kongers are going to need it from here on in.
P. Smith
The people as expressed through this process called voting. We know it might not be done that way in your country, but it is a real thing.
ulysses
The only countries backing this subjugation of democracy are criminal states like China and Russia.
The free world needs to take a stance , otherwise HKers will end up like Uyghurs and Tibetans!!!!!
theFu
When the govt doesn't want to listen to the governed, a dictatorship happens. Until larger numbers of citizens die, the dictatorship will win.
Time to add Xia to the list of anti-Hong Kong people.
Just proves that it is easier to destroy that to build. CCP-Chinese know this.
Fighto!
Despicable, but this is no shock to anyone. Every Hong Konger with half a brain is right now in the process of applying to emigrate while it is still legal, either to the UK if they are over 24, or elsewhere if younger.
Make no mistake - HK is now effectivly a Communist, anti-democratic state. Anyone who visits, trades with or deals with HK and their disgusting government supports authoritarianism, hates freedom and despises human rights.
Boycott HK - Boycott China.
Burning Bush
The current pro-China government won the election fair and square.
If you think the Hong Kong election was "stolen" then prove it.
Eppee
What are you even talking about ?!
388 seats were pro dem, while 89 were pro Beijing during the last election, 2019.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Hong_Kong_local_elections
Jsapc
In what reality are you living in? The pro-Beijing party overwhelmingly lost in the last election.
nandakandamanda
While visiting China some years ago, I was told that China is like Europe.
My informer added: "To people in Beijing, Hong Kong is like Portugal, a foreign country full of different people."
By stamping control over it now, ignoring proud and patriotic Hong Kong lovers, in the same manner as with Mongolia, Urumqi (Xinjiang) and Tibet, China will ensure CCP temporary rule, but equally, that no other nearby nation will give an inch, even a centimeter.
P. Smith
Didn’t think that one through, did you?
Robert Cikki
Wait, what? What year or parallel universe are you living in? Are we talking about the 2019 election in Hong Kong, the clashes there and so on?
Judging by the narratives you're using not just under this topic, I'm beginning to believe you're a russian troll.
Using your narrative
if you think i'm wrong, then prove it.
kanki Asada
CHINA THE TROUBLE MAKER?
Hong-Kong, Tibet, Xinjian, Taiwan, Ladakh and many more China has always been a troublemaker as it follows its expansion policy and anti-human rights policy. It has always created mess everywhere. Whereas after the conversation between both the presidents of U.S. and China whereby Mr. Biden warned and asked china not to interfere too much otherwise the trade will be affected. After that also CCP didn’t even stopped once to impose and show its cruelty.
lostrune2
Patriotism test is how authoritarians mind-control citizens
HonestDictator
Oh gawd... CCP boot licking "patriots" that aren't democratically elected by the free decisions of the people of HK. I hope the CCP goes down hard and miserably for the excrement they've pulled for decades.