Hong Kong’s electoral overhaul will not block opposition as there are also patriots among pan-democrats, Beijing official says

Legitimacy of Legislative Council can be boosted by presence of opposition camp, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office deputy director says

Sweeping reforms will leave ‘small wounds but allow us to dig deep’, Zhang Xiaoming says, comparing overhaul to ‘minimally invasive surgery’

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Zhang Xiaoming, of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, on Friday compared the electoral overhaul to ‘minimally invasive surgery’. Photo: Simon Song

Published: 10:38am, 12 Mar 2021Updated: 5:35pm, 12 Mar 2021

The Chinese national parliament has formally approved the biggest overhaul of Hong Kong’s political system, empowering the committee that elects the city’s leader to effectively shut out opposition members deemed “unpatriotic” from the ruling establishment and send its own representatives to the legislature.

The sweeping resolution, which Chinese Premier Li Keqiang hailed as key to improving the “one country, two systems” governing policy for Hong Kong after the mass protests and political turmoil of 2019, was adopted at the closing of the National People’s Congress (NPC) plenary session on Thursday.

It was passed with 2,895 votes, without a single vote against it and just one abstention, and drew the longest applause of the day from delegates in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.

Zhang Xiaoming and Deng Zhonghua, deputy directors of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, held a press conference on Friday morning to address the changes. Zhang Yong, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, was also present.

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Financial hub status ‘not threatened’

Much like the fears that accompanied the return of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule in 1997, concerns over the city’s status as an international finance hub were being overblown, according to Zhang.