Hong Kong must form a District Council that is completely led by patriots to prevent it from being “hijacked, manipulated and paralysed” again, a top Beijing official in the city has said.
Individuals who are not patriotic have no place in December’s District Council race, Zheng Yanxiong, director of China’s liaison office in Hong Kong, said on Tuesday during a government seminar on improving district governance.
District Councils must be steered by individuals who love China and Hong Kong in order to “completely remove the soil for colour revolution” in the city, the Beijing official said.
Zheng pointed to the last District Council election held in November 2019, when Hong Kong was rocked by widespread protests triggered by a controversial extradition bill. Many “anti-China disrupting Hong Kong forces” were elected “amid the chaos,” the Beijing official said, adding they later instigated a “trilogy of seizing power” involving the Legislative Council election and the chief executive election.
It was a “dark hour” for Hong Kong when the elected councillors – many of whom were from the pro-democracy camp – promoted Hong Kong independence and stirred up conflicts in society, Zheng said.
Zheng provided no evidence that district councillors elected in 2019 supported independence.
“The first principle of enhancing district governance in Hong Kong is to fully implement the principle of patriots ruling Hong Kong in the District Council election, and to completely end the history of anti-China and anti-Hong Kong disruptors entering the governance framework of the special administrative region through elections,” the official said in Cantonese.
Tuesday’s seminar was held a day after a two-week nomination period for the newly restricted District Council election. A total of 400 people submitted nomination forms, but none were from opposition parties, as their election hopefuls did not secure sufficient nominations from three government-appointed committees to join the race.
Electoral overhaul
Plans to overhaul the District Council elections were unveiled in May 2023 to ensure only “patriots” were elected, following a pro-democracy landslide at the last polls in 2019.
The number of seats chosen democratically by the public were slashed from 452 to 88 – reducing the power of public votes to a fifth. The rest are to be chosen by the city’s leader and government-appointed committees.
Constituency boundaries were redrawn, the opposition were shut out, voting hours were slashed by an hour, and each local council is to be chaired by a government official, similar to colonial-era arrangements. All candidates undergo national security vetting to ensure patriotism.
‘Recognised standards’ for patriots
Citing Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Tuesday, Zheng said patriots holding political power was a universal rule and necessary requirement for ensuring long-term stability and prosperity for Hong Kong.
There were “recognised standards” for whether an individual qualified as a patriot, the Beijing official remarked, saying it was important to consider a person’s “surface-level statements” and their actual behaviour.” Those who “made mistakes” were welcomed to change their position to loving the country and city, but it would take time to confirm such a transformation, Zheng said.
“It is unlikely for someone who was actively opposing China and causing chaos in Hong Kong yesterday, or belonged to a political group that was still anti-China and disrupting Hong Kong, to suddenly transform into a patriot today by merely chanting a few slogans,” he said.
‘Political manipulation’
At the same seminar, Chief Executive John Lee referred to a white paper issued by China in 2021 on Hong Kong’s democratic progress, which accused the British colonial government of political manipulation. According to the document, UK authorities expanded Hong Kong’s elections and increased the number of directly elected seats to the legislature and the District Council within a short period of time ahead of China resuming sovereignty over the city.
Such a move amounted to an attempt by the UK to prolong its political influence over Hong Kong after the Handover, the chief executive said citing the white paper.
“It was an attempt to make Hong Kong an independent or semi-independent political entity, hindering China’s resumption of sovereignty over Hong Kong and the implementation of effective governance,” he said.
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