On March 30, 2021, the National People's Congress of China approved a resolution that will soon give China the power to vet and choose candidates for Hong Kong's Legislative Council (LegCo) elections. The resolution was entitled "Patriots Governing Hong Kong" and states that any person wishing to run for election must not be critical of Beijing, and must be a loyal supporter of the Chinese Communist Party.
In order to ensure that these LegCo candidates are patriotic and loyal, they will be vetted and chosen by various Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) election committees and the national security police, all of which are pro-CCP and pro-Beijing.
While the popular vote will still be held to give voters a voice, the candidates appearing on the ballot will only be those preselected by the committees. Additionally, the popular vote will only be held for 20/90 Legislative Council positions, while the rest will be chosen by special sector groups. District Council positions were also changed from elected positions to appointed positions because the majority of those elected to those seats were pro-democracy.
The resolution comes after a long number of pro-democratic protests in 2019 gained attention and pro-democracy officials either resigned or were removed because they were considered "threats to national security". Also, following these year long protests, a strict national security law was put in place that heightened the punishments for protestors, enabled Beijing to wire-tap or listen in on individuals, and allowed Beijing to be the primary interpreters of the law instead of Hong Kong's judiciary.
Other countries such as the U.S. and Britain have weighed in, calling the actions taken after the 2019 protests and this new electoral crackdown, anti-democratic. The British are particularly frustrated because Hong Kong was given back to China in 1997, by the British, with the intention to develop a "one country, two systems" approach. Since then, the freedom of speech, judiciary, and assembly, which are the unique freedoms for Hong Kong established in the "Basic Law" constitution, have been stripped away by Beijing. Dominic Raab, British press secretary, said this was "a clear breach of the Joint Declaration".
However, not everyone agrees that this is all a plan to eradicate democracy. Other contributors, such as Ivan Choy, believe that this could be a reasonable attempt by Beijing to "reduce their dependence on the industrial and commercial sectors and on the big property developers" by placing the control in committees and others suggest that this could be beneficial in limiting politicization.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/world/asia/china-hong-kong-elections.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56534040
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/loyalty-03302021135238.html
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-52765838
Picture Sources:
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3026763/hong-kong-protests-will-not-fizzle-out-their-own-beijing-needs
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