New faces, new expectations, but will Hongkongers in China’s legislature deliver on conflicting demands?
The December 19 election for 36 Hongkongers to join the National People’s Congress will mark a changing of the guard, and a more challenging road ahead to manage different needs
Thirty-six Hongkongers will join China’s legislature for five years after a local vote next month, marking a changing of the guard as they seek to represent the city’s interests in its vital but oftentimes tense relationship with Beijing.
Critics have often dismissed the Hong Kong deputies in the National People’s Congress (NPC), seeing them as pro-establishment types jostling to rub shoulders with the party elite in Beijing, while the deputies, who are not paid, insist they do not just rubber stamp policies.
The NPC, the highest organ of state power, has the mandate to amend the constitution and oversee its enforcement. It also enacts and amends laws, elects and appoints members to central state organs and directs policy on key state issues.
The five-yearly election, taking place on December 19, will see a third of the 36 current Hong Kong deputies unlikely to seek re-election. Many have served for more than a decade.
They include two women known as political heavyweights: Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, Hong Kong’s sole representative on the NPC Standing Committee (NPCSC), its top legislative body, and Maria Tam Wai-chu, convenor of the Hong Kong delegation to the NPC.
