Hong Kong electoral overhaul will not shut out all opposition activists, top Beijing official says
- Zhang Xiaoming describes sweeping reform as ‘minimally invasive surgery’ involving deep digging into small wound with promise of speedy recovery
- Deputy director of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office also says there are ‘patriots’ among the pan-democrats who can still run for elections
A senior Beijing official on Friday said the central government’s unprecedented overhaul of Hong Kong’s entire political system would not shut out all opposition activists, and there were “patriots” among the pan-democrats who could still run for elections.
Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), described Beijing’s sweeping reform as “minimally invasive surgery” involving deep digging into a small wound with the promise of a speedy recovery.
Zhang, a former director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong from 2012 to 2017, and ex-head of the HKMAO from 2017 to 2020, was speaking at a high-powered press conference a day after China’s top legislature formally greenlit the biggest shake-up of the city’s political structure.
The National People’s Congress passed a resolution to overhaul the Election Committee, which elects the city’s leader, to effectively shut out opposition members deemed “unpatriotic” and empowering it to decide who gets to run for the legislature.
“To keep unpatriotic people, especially those anti-China troublemaking elements, out of the city’s administrative structure does not mean shutting out all opposition figures or pan-democrats from the system,” Zhang said.
“There are also patriots among the opposition, especially the pan-democratic candidates. They can still participate in elections and be elected in accordance with the law. There will still be a range of voices in the Legislative Council, including those critical of the government. The difference is there won’t be ugly dramas like we’ve seen when certain lawmakers took their oaths.”
His remarks came as local pro-Beijing groups, including the Friends of Hong Kong Association, continued their citywide and online campaign to collect signatures in support of the revamp, while a group of pro-establishment lawmakers launched a separate petition to garner the legal sector’s backing.