End of the road for Hong Kong's democratic dream as China 'improves' its voting system
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
June 30, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 2022
End of the road for Hong Kong's democratic dream as China 'improves' its voting system

Analysis

Reuters
05 March, 2021, 07:55 pm
Last modified: 05 March, 2021, 07:56 pm

Related News

  • Sri Lanka crisis gives India chance to gain sway vs China
  • Chinese President Xi arrives in Hong Kong for handover anniversary
  • Shanghai Disneyland theme park re-opens after three-month closure
  • Hong Kong on high alert as Xi Jinping visit expected for handover
  • Easing Covid-19 rules, growth focus aid China bulls' cautious return

End of the road for Hong Kong's democratic dream as China 'improves' its voting system

China’s move comes months after a sweeping national security law was imposed on the Asian financial hub, cracking down on dissent, and more than a year after months of sometimes violent anti-China, pro-democracy protests which swept the city

Reuters
05 March, 2021, 07:55 pm
Last modified: 05 March, 2021, 07:56 pm
FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong and Chinese national flags are flown behind a pair of surveillance cameras outside the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong, China July 20, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
FILE PHOTO: Hong Kong and Chinese national flags are flown behind a pair of surveillance cameras outside the Central Government Offices in Hong Kong, China July 20, 2020. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Ever since Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997, opposition activists have tried to bring full democracy to the city, believing that China would live up to its promise to one day allow universal suffrage to elect the city's leader.

On Friday, that campaign was dealt its biggest blow. Chinese parliamentarians in Beijing unveiled details of a plan to revamp the political structure of China's freest city that critics say has all but killed off the pledge of one person, one vote.

China's move comes months after a sweeping national security law was imposed on the Asian financial hub, cracking down on dissent, and more than a year after months of sometimes violent anti-China, pro-democracy protests which swept the city.

"There is not much we can do to effectively change what they're deciding," the head of the Democratic Party, Lo Kin-hei, told Reuters.

The structural changes will include increasing the city's legislative seats from 70 to 90, with some of these to now be decided by a committee stacked with Beijing loyalists. Seats likely to be controlled by the democrats will either be scrapped or reduced.

A 1,200-person committee that picks Hong Kong's leader will be expanded - further "improving" a system controlled by Chinese "patriots", according to Wang Chen, a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress.

Wang told reporters the moves, that would involve re-drafting parts of Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, would consolidate China's "overall jurisdiction" over the city and fix "deep-seated problems" once and for all.

It was in the Basic Law that Beijing promised universal suffrage as an ultimate goal for Hong Kong.

But Friday's moves now stand to nip in the bud the risk of any resurgence of the democracy movement, founded after Beijing's violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in and around Tiananmen Square in 1989.

With many leading democrats now jailed or forced into exile, including Lo's predecessor, Wu Chi-wai, who was denied bail this week along with dozens of others for an alleged conspiracy to "overthrow" the government, the democrats will try to utilise their grassroots networks to keep their ideals alive.

"The trust towards the system is fading ... and it's not a good sign if we want a more peaceful society to not allow different voices to be in harmony," Lo told Reuters.

'MOVING BACKWARDS'

Another veteran democracy campaigner said Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who became head of the Communist Party in 2012, had changed the trajectory of Hong Kong's moves towards full democracy, going against the oft-cited promise of China's late leader, Deng Xiaoping, to let Hong Kong people "rule" Hong Kong.

"It's a great tragedy," said the source, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the political atmosphere. "They are moving backwards, not forwards, and taking us back in time to a dark, dark place."

With the opposition now likely to be become a permanent minority in a re-modelled legislature, the shift towards China's one-party model will create openings for new patriotic factions, critics and some pro-Beijing politicians say.

China, given its rise into a global superpower, now has the power and resources to extend its autocratic governance despite criticism and sanctions from the West.

Some see Hong Kong's British Common Law legal system as the last bastion against China's tightening authoritarian grip.

More than 50 democratic advocates crammed into a court in the city this week, some of whom face potential life imprisonment on a subversion charge under the national security law promulgated directly by China's parliament last June.

Two democrats, veteran activist Leung Kwok-hung and former law professor Benny Tai, had to shuttle between two court rooms for concurrent hearings, while others were taken to hospital after falling ill during marathon sessions.

Under the security law, the onus rests on defendants to argue a case for bail - which critics say overturns the common law tradition.

Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula, which guaranteed its way of life, freedoms and independent legal system.

Barrister Martin Lee, 82, dubbed the city's father of democracy, wrote in a 2014 editorial in the New York Times that universal suffrage was the only way to honour Deng's "one country, two systems" formula and to "keep his blueprint from becoming a litany of broken promises".

The current moves could be a final departure from that.

"This is now an over-correction," a senior Western diplomat told Reuters.

"In trying to wrest control back, there is a danger that they will overdo it and kill the goose that lays the golden egg."

Top News / World+Biz / South Asia

china / hong kong

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Bangladesh Bank hikes policy rate to tighten money flow
    Bangladesh Bank hikes policy rate to tighten money flow
  • Seven more jute mills going private
    Seven more jute mills going private
  • Photo: TBS
    Jitu attacked teacher Utpal for stopping him from pursuing girl: RAB

MOST VIEWED

  • A man holds a wheat in a grain storage facility near Izmail, in the Odessa region on June 14, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photographer: Oleksandr Gimanov/AFP/Getty Images
    Food inflation relief is within sight as crops and crude pull back
  • Bank Indonesia headquarters in Jakarta.Photographer: Rony Zakaria/Bloomberg
    Central banks in Asia spend billions to slow currency declines
  • Houses turned into little islands. Photo: Muhammad Amdad Hussain
    Time to reassess our disaster management capabilities
  • Industrial facilities of PCK Raffinerie oil refinery are pictured in Schwedt/Oder, Germany, May 9, 2022. The company receives crude oil from Russia via the 'Friendship' pipeline. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke/File Photo
    Why Russian oil price cap is easier said than done
  • Abortion is a part of healthcare. Photo: Bloomberg
    Abortion is healthcare and women’s rights are human rights
  • Save energy while the sun doth shine.Photographer: picture alliance/picture alliance/Bloomberg
    Many winters are coming. Start saving energy now

Related News

  • Sri Lanka crisis gives India chance to gain sway vs China
  • Chinese President Xi arrives in Hong Kong for handover anniversary
  • Shanghai Disneyland theme park re-opens after three-month closure
  • Hong Kong on high alert as Xi Jinping visit expected for handover
  • Easing Covid-19 rules, growth focus aid China bulls' cautious return

Features

Bangladesh ranks among the top ten countries whose citizens have sought asylum in Cyprus. Photo: Arafatul Islam/DW

How Bangladeshi migrants end up in Cyprus

3h | Panorama
Dr M Mushtuq Husain. Sketch: TBS

'We did not face an extreme crisis with Omicron. But this wave is spreading faster'

6h | Panorama
Luxury Houseboat owners  distributed food, provided medical assistance, and shelter to the flood victims, till the flood waters receded Photo: Masum Billah

The first responders: How luxury houseboats became rescue centres for flood victims

7h | Panorama
Mahathir accused financial titans of seeking to reverse decades of economic development that propelled tens of millions into the middle class. Photo: Bloomberg

George Soros, Mahathir and the legacy of 1997

1d | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Gov mulls to privatise all state-owned jute mills

Gov mulls to privatise all state-owned jute mills

18m | Videos
Khaled Masud  Pilot starts his second innings in restaurant business

Khaled Masud Pilot starts his second innings in restaurant business

7h | Videos
Severodonetsk now under Russian control

Severodonetsk now under Russian control

18h | Videos
South African boy drove ambition, says Elon's father

South African boy drove ambition, says Elon's father

18h | Videos

Most Read

1
Padma Bridge from satellite. Photo: Screengrab
Bangladesh

Padma Bridge from satellite 

2
Meet the man behind 'Azke amar mon balo nei'
Splash

Meet the man behind 'Azke amar mon balo nei'

3
Photo: TBS
Bangladesh

Motorcycles banned on Padma Bridge 

4
Photo: Courtesy
Corporates

Gree AC being used in all parts of Padma Bridge project

5
Photo: Collected
Economy

Tech startup ShopUp bags $65m in Series B4 funding

6
World Bank to give Bangladesh $18b IDA loans in next five years
Economy

World Bank to give Bangladesh $18b IDA loans in next five years

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab
BENEATH THE SURFACE
Workers unload sacks of paddy at the BOC Ghat paddy market on the bank of the Meghna River in Brahmanbaria’s Ashuganj, the largest paddy market in the eastern part of the country. This century-old market sells paddies worth Tk5-6 crore a day during the peak season. PHOTO: RAJIB DHAR

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net