By blocking Joshua Wong from standing for election, Hong Kong is just driving protesters back to the streets

The election ban on Wong signals that protesters have no viable pathway within the system to articulate their concerns. Is the government missing a chance to engage with those who represent the views of millions who have marched?

Mike Chinoy

Published: 3:00am, 31 Oct 2019

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The Hong Kong government’s refusal to allow 23-year-old democracy activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung to contest a local election has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the political crisis.

Wong, arguably the most internationally well-known figure in Hong Kong’s youthful protest movement, had planned to run in elections scheduled for November 24 for a spot in one of Hong Kong’s district councils, the lowest rung of local government.

The 479 representatives on the 18 councils don’t receive a full-time salary, have no power to pass legislation and serve primarily as an advisory body on such mundane matters as noise pollution and recreational facilities. But the government’s move to bar Wong from running will further inflame an already volatile conflict by underscoring that those in the movement have no viable pathway within the existing system to articulate their concerns.

Although pro-government political organisations, with greater resources and connections, have long dominated the district councils, democracy activists made a conscious decision to contest all 452 directly elected seats this time.

With nearly 400,000 new voters registered during the summer of unrest, the calculation is that the election could give pro-democracy forces a popular mandate for their demands for more representative government and the preservation of the freedoms Beijing promised Hong Kong after the 1997 handover.

This is especially true as one of the underlying grievances fuelling the protest movement has been the sense of being shut out of the political process.

Indeed, many demonstrators have argued that taking to the streets is justified because the system has shown no willingness to address their concerns. Allowing them to secure places in local government could signal that the authorities in Hong Kong – and ultimately Beijing – might be open to change.

And indeed, to the surprise of many observers, the authorities have permitted a number of prominent activists to pass a vetting process conducted by returning officers and to register as candidates.

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Wong’s application, however, confounded the government, which was undoubtedly under intense pressure from Beijing to bar him.

In late October, the original officer handling Wong’s case suddenly reported ill and then vanished from public view. No explanation was offered, but Wong and others speculated that her “illness” was an excuse. After waiting until the last possible moment, with candidates for all other district council seats already approved, a newly appointed returning officer declared Wong ineligible on Tuesday.

The officer said it was “questionable whether Mr Wong accepted the People’s Republic of China’s sovereignty” over Hong Kong – even though Wong had publicly declared he did not support independence.

The district council elections have assumed outsize importance not only because they will be the first electoral test of popular feeling since the protests erupted. The movement that has marched and clashed with police for more than 20 weeks has been largely leaderless.

This has made it challenging to identify ringleaders, but also meant that the government lacks meaningful interlocutors for any kind of dialogue to ease tensions.

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Establishment candidates dominated previous district council elections. If the November 24 vote produces a new crop of duly elected representatives, then the government would at last have people with whom to engage who are validated by the existing electoral system but also represent the views of the large number of Hongkongers who have participated in the movement.

Given Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s rigidity, lack of political imagination and the pressures she faces from her masters in Beijing, it is far from clear she would take advantage of such an opportunity. Amid intensifying violence and public anger at both the police and government, the government could have used Wong’s application as an opportunity to defuse tensions.

However, with Wong barred from running, the legitimacy of the electoral process has been thrown into doubt. The lesson many people in Hong Kong will draw is that even though Wong was willing to play by the rules and operate within the system, the government blocked him anyway.

As Wong told reporters, “it's the interference from Beijing to prompt a delay, and to block me to run for office, which will just prove that the election process in Hong Kong isn't fair at all”.

If the violence continues in Hong Kong, the only winner is Beijing

Wong’s fate could have significant implications for how the international community views Hong Kong, and, in particular, for US relations with both the territory and Beijing. Wong is widely respected by US lawmakers, and recently visited Washington to lobby in favour of a bill that would heighten US scrutiny of rights violations here.

Officials in Hong Kong and Beijing have vehemently denounced the bill. But with Wong barred from running, Western diplomats in Hong Kong say its final passage and signing by US President Donald Trump is more likely.

More broadly, the signal is clear – that the governments of both Hong Kong and China fear giving a platform to a 23-year-old. Under these circumstances, the prospect that radical protesters might seek to disrupt the election is likely to increase, and so would the danger that an already skittish administration might decide to cancel the vote altogether. Such a development could spark greater violence.

Not that the district council campaign has been entirely peaceful so far. At least three pro-democracy candidates have been attacked by pro-Beijing thugs. Two were hit in the head while campaigning, and a third was so badly beaten that he ended up in hospital.

Moreover, diplomats and others in Hong Kong worry that some pro-democracy figures permitted to run may yet be disqualified or, even if they win, be prevented from taking office, as was the case with several youthful activists who won election to the Legislative Council in 2016 only to be expelled for spurious reasons.

Especially given this history, the decision to bar Wong from running is likely to be seen as more evidence of the necessity of taking to the streets because there appears to be no other way to make their voices heard.

Mike Chinoy is a Hong Kong-based non-resident senior fellow at the University of Southern California’s US-China Institute. Reprinted with permission from YaleGlobal Online http://yaleglobal.yale.edu

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