Opinion | Qiao Xiaoyang's topsy-turvy understanding of democracy
Frank Ching says Qiao Xiaoyang's topsy-turvy understanding of universal suffrage will set back our democratic development
Many people will agree with Qiao Xiaoyang, chairman of the Law Committee of the National People's Congress, when he says Hong Kong's chief executive must be someone who "loves the country and loves Hong Kong", and not be confrontational towards Beijing.
But the means he proposes for ensuring that only such people will be elected are profoundly undemocratic.
Qiao quotes the Basic Law as saying that the future chief executive will be selected by universal suffrage "upon nomination by a broadly representative nominating committee in accordance with democratic procedures".
That sounds pretty good until you discover that the future nomination procedure will be even less democratic than the current Election Committee system. At least the current system allowed the nomination last year of Albert Ho Chun-yan, then chairman of the Democratic Party, and, in 2007, the nomination of Alan Leong Kah-kit of the Civic Party.
Of course, both were defeated in the Election Committee, and public opinion polls showed they would have lost even in a city-wide vote. This was a reflection of Hong Kong voters' good sense: they know it is a bad idea to elect someone who is confrontational.
Qiao makes it clear that, with universal suffrage, such people can't even be nominated.