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Hong Kong electoral changes
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The speed of the electoral reforms planned for Hong Kong has caught many by surprise. Photo: Reuters

Explainer | Hong Kong’s electoral shake-up: making sense of the political tectonic shift of the past 10 days through 10 questions

  • Sweeping changes to city’s electoral system so fast and furious many were caught by surprise
  • Expanding and empowering the Election Committee at core of changes
Beijing’s sweeping changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system were so fast and furious that many across the political spectrum were caught by surprise.

Ten days into the approval of the changes by China’s top legislature on March 11, Beijing officials completed consultative sessions with more than 1,000 individuals in the city, they said, and the pro-establishment bloc floated various proposals in the hope of fine tuning how rules of three upcoming elections would be rewritten.

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China’s national legislature approves biggest shake-up to Hong Kong electoral system since handover

China’s national legislature approves biggest shake-up to Hong Kong electoral system since handover
Ahead of the upcoming meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee which is expected to be held later this week at the earliest, here are 10 things to help you make sense of the changes being imposed on Hong Kong’s political scene.

1. What is this electoral overhaul all about?

The changes are intended to expand and empower the Election Committee, a 1,200-strong body dominated by the pro-Beijing camp, which picks Hong Kong’s chief executive. The revamped 1,500-member electoral college will be given sweeping powers to nominate lawmakers and elect some of its own members to the Legislative Council, which will be expanded from 70 seats to 90.

The composition of the body will also be drastically revamped. Not only will a new 300-member sector composed of Hong Kong representatives of pro-Beijing groups be added, sub-sectors held by the opposition might be slashed to ensure patriots wield overwhelming power in the committee.

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2. What’s Beijing’s definition of a patriot? Who decides?

Patriots, according to Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong, Xia Baolong, are those who safeguard national interests and sovereignty, respect the constitution and do not oppose the Chinese Communist Party. He had said those who called for foreign forces to interfere with Hong Kong affairs, destroyers of “one country, two systems”, were deemed “unpatriotic” and not allowed to enter the city’s governing structure.

A new top-level committee will be tasked to vet the loyalty of election hopefuls in the city, as stipulated in the resolution approved by the NPC. But its composition and vetting criteria remain unknown until the standing committee works on the details at its next meeting.

The central government conducted 66 closed-door meetings to solicit views from 1,000 individuals on the electoral reforms. Photo: Bloomberg

3. What sort of consultation did Beijing hold in Hong Kong?

It held closed-door meetings spanning three days, from Monday to Wednesday but mostly with its own pro-establishment allies and supporters. Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Deputy Director Zhang Xiaoming said in total, the central government conducted 66 such sessions to solicit views from 1,000 individuals on the electoral reforms.

Pro-Beijing lawmakers, principal officials, property tycoons and representatives from the legal and education sectors were invited to the dialogues. Apart from Zhang, officials from the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the NPC Standing Committee, and the liaison office of the central government in Hong Kong also co-hosted the sessions.

Hong Kong lawmakers to start discussing coming electoral shake-up

4. What were the main takeaways?

Attendees laid out detailed suggestions for the electoral overhaul. In concluding the consultative sessions, Zhang said the revamped Election Committee will select a larger proportion of lawmakers in the Legislative Council than those elected by the public and by functional constituencies.

He also said he would reflect participants’ views to China’s top legislature that district councillors’ seats in the electoral college should be axed or reduced significantly.

5. What will the country’s top legislature do next?

The standing committee is expected to meet by the end of March, according to Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole representative to the legislative body, considering the urgency and complexity of the local law amendment in the city for the next step.

By amending the Annex I and II of the Basic Law, the city’s mini constitution, the Chinese legislature will have the final say on the composition of the revamped Legco and how seats of the empowered Election Committee would be allocated.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said more than 20 pieces of legislation would need to be amended as part of the reforms. Photo: EPA-EFE

6. What’s next for the Hong Kong lawmakers and government?

More than 20 pieces of principal ordinances and subsidiary legislation would be amended,

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor Lam said previously. She proposed that a subcommittee under Legco’s House Committee could be set up, so lawmakers could kick off discussions of the electoral changes before Beijing finalised the details.

7. So what will the new Legislative Council look like?

In the revamped 90-member legislature, Beijing is said to be leaning towards allocating 40 seats to the Election Committee and 30 to the functional constituencies, leaving 20 to be decided through direct elections.

Stanley Ng Chau-pei, the president of the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions who attended the consultative session, proposed the committee should fill as many as 50 seats in the new legislature, slashing the number of direct seats and functional seats from 35 to 20 each.

But more pro-establishment politicians floated a more moderate proposal, that giving the three groups an equal 30 seats in the legislature would be more beneficial to the city’s development.

Tian Feilong, an associate professor at Beihang University’s Law School in Beijing and director of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, believed Beijing opted for an overwhelming proportion of Election Committee members in Legco to avoid lawmakers filibustering on controversial issues.

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8. How much power will the vetting committee have and who will be on it?

Officially called the “candidates’ qualification review committee”, the group is positioned as a high-level institution to ensure that no unpatriotic elements can enter the elections for the chief executive, Election Committee and the legislature, but its composition and vetting mechanism remain a huge question mark.

While some members in the pro-establishment bloc suggested that local officials, retired judges and pro-Beijing delegates to China’s legislature should sit on the body, local political heavyweight Tam Yiu-chung said it was reasonable for the NPC Standing Committee, to which he belongs, to directly appoint the members.

He added that the committee’s decisions should not be subject to judicial review, which differs from the existing practice that allows disqualified candidates to challenge decisions by returning officers.

06:04

‘We must recalibrate’: Hong Kong opposition considers next move after arrests and political changes

‘We must recalibrate’: Hong Kong opposition considers next move after arrests and political changes

9. What’s going to happen to the opposition? Did anyone consult them?

Zhang, the Beijing official, insisted pan-democrats were among the 1,000 people consulted in the three-day closed-door sessions last week. But major opposition parties, including the Democratic Party, Civic Party and Labour Party, said their members were not invited.

Tik Chi-yuen, who left the Democratic Party in 2015 to found centrist party Third Side, believed he was one of the few in the pro-democracy camp to be invited to meet the officials.

Local pro-democracy politicians widely condemned the overhaul as a means to drastically shrink the space for politics in the city, but major opposition parties did not rule out taking part in elections in the future.

In its latest move last week, the central committee of the Democratic Party, the city’s largest opposition party, approved the establishment of a “mainland and constitutional affairs committee”, with the aim of strengthening its study of the mainland’s political landscape.

Lau Siu-kai urged pan-democrats to reposition themselves as “loyal reformists” and distance themselves from radicals so the traditional forces would have a chance to “rise again” after anti-China elements went into retreat.

An aerial view of Hong Kong's Central district. Photo: Winson Wong

10. Will the changes have any impact on the city’s economy?

Beijing officials said the overhaul would help the financial hub achieve political stability, and move on to solve deep-seated socio-economic problems. But the decision was widely criticised by the international community, with Britain saying that it would “hollow out the space for democratic debate”.

The United States, in its latest reaction, sanctioned an additional 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials whose actions it said reduced the city’s high degree of autonomy. The European Union has also chimed in, urging Beijing to consider not just the political consequences but also the economic implications of the move.

The Heritage Foundation’s earlier decision to remove Hong Kong entirely from its Economic Freedom Index raised alarms about the city’s reputation as an international hub, but Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po decried the move as an ideologically motivated.

For now, analysts have said the electoral overhaul, coming on the heels of the national security law, will feature prominently in any discussion on Hong Kong, including business decisions.
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