Opinion | Why Hongkongers voting from the mainland might be more trouble than it’s worth

Name: Carrie Lam delays policy address until after Beijing talks on Hong Kong’s economic recovery
Uploaded: 2020-11-01T22:45:19.000Z
Duration: 2 min 20 s
Description: Carrie Lam delays policy address until after Beijing talks on Hong Kong’s economic recovery

The absentee voting proposal calls into question the limits of ‘one country, two systems’, and the complexities go far beyond mere technicalities like how to validate voter identification

Reading Time:3 minutes

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The Shenzhen River dividing Hong Kong from Shenzhen. “One country, two systems” was designed to keep Hong Kong’s “well water” from mixing with the mainland’s “river water”. Thus, allowing Hongkongers to vote from the mainland raises complicated political questions. Photo: Reuters

Alice Wu

Published: 6:45am, 2 Nov 2020Updated: 6:54am, 2 Nov 2020

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her entourage of ministers are no doubt making final preparations for their trip up north to secure support from the central government for proposals to stimulate the city’s economy, which had already been ravaged by months of social unrest before Covid-19 hit.

This is the trip for which Lam postponed her policy address, and while she had wanted it to happen at the end of October, she will have to make do with a slightly delayed and significantly extended version, complete with a day in Shenzhen first, probably in quarantine.

Perhaps this increasing inaccessibility of the central leadership is part of the new normal we have been expecting; after all, it was only two years ago that Lam received some pretty spectacular VIP treatment.

In October 2018, at the opening of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, which was considered the showpiece of innovation and integration of Hong Kong, Macau and the mainland, Lam shared centre stage with President Xi Jinping: they entered the Zhuhai immigration clearance facility side by side, smiling and chatting, followed by the vice-premier and Lam’s Macau counterpart.

But, due to Covid-19 and subsequent border restrictions, there’s little traffic now on the bridge that is supposed to attest to the interconnectedness of these cities. And, being able to walk side by side with the president is a thing of the past for Hong Kong’s chief executive.

02:20

Carrie Lam delays policy address until after Beijing talks on Hong Kong’s economic recovery

Although Lam has said the discussions in Beijing will only be about economic issues, many continue to speculate that the proposal to allow Hongkongers to vote from the mainland will also be on the agenda, since Lam herself broached the subject recently.

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.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} The absentee voting proposal calls into question the limits of ‘one country, two systems’, and the complexities go far beyond mere technicalities like how to validate voter identification

The absentee voting proposal calls into question the limits of ‘one country, two systems’, and the complexities go far beyond mere technicalities like how to validate voter identification