HONG KONG – Chinese leaders today endorsed a sweeping overhaul of Hong Kong’s electoral system, slashing its number of directly elected seats and ensuring a majority of the city’s lawmakers are selected by a reliably pro-Beijing committee.
The new measures, which bypassed Hong Kong’s legislature and are imposed directly by Beijing, are the latest move aimed at quashing the financial hub’s democracy movement after huge protests.
“President Xi Jinping signed presidential orders to promulgate the amended annexes,” said China’s official Xinhua news agency in a short report.
Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents are still not sure what the new law contains, with details not yet published.
But, Tam Yiu-chung, the city’s sole delegate in China’s rubber-stamp Parliament, gave a breakdown of what the new measures include.
“The amendments were unanimously passed by 167 members of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress," he told AFP.
Under the new law, Hong Kong’s legislature will be expanded from 70 to 90 seats.
Only 20 seats will now be directly elected, down from 35, said Tam.
The majority – 40 – will be chosen by a pro-Beijing panel.
The remaining 30 will be picked by “functional constituencies” – bodies representing certain industries and special-interest groups that have also been historically loyal to Beijing.
And, anyone standing for election will have to be vetted for their political views.
Tam revealed that the vetting committee will be created by authorities in Hong Kong, and the city’s new national security apparatus will have a say on who gets approved.
“The National Security Committee and security police will provide reports on every single candidate to assist in the vetting by the qualification review committee.” – AFP, March 30, 2021
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