China approves plan to veto HK election candidates

BEIJING: China’s rubber-stamp parliament voted yesterday for changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system, including powers to veto candidates, as Beijing moves to establish a “patriotic” government after huge pro-democracy rallies in the city.

Beijing has acted decisively to dismantle Hong Kong’s democratic pillars after massive and sometimes violent protests in 2019. At last year’s meeting of the National People’s Congress, the Communist Party leadership imposed a sweeping national security law on the finance hub.

That has since been used to jail dozens of democracy campaigners and has defanged the protest movement here.

Yesterday, only one member of the National People’s Congress abstained in the vote, which critics say will be one of the final nails in the coffin of Hong Kong’s democracy movement.

The decision aims to place the power of governing the city “firmly in the hands of forces that are patriotic and love Hong Kong”, according to parliamentary spokesman Wang Chen.

Although the exact shape of the latest changes is unclear, the vote clears the path towards a “qualification vetting system” for the electoral process here.

A Beijing-controlled election committee in the city would also be tasked with “electing a large proportion of Legislative Council members”, he added.

The move is a “setback” for the city-state’s progress on democratic development since 1997, said Bernard Chan, a top adviser to city leader Carrie Lam, this week.

“Over the last 23 years, we clearly didn’t do a good job to show the central government that these so-called political reforms are helping the ‘One Country, Two Systems’,” Chan said.

Last month, Hong Kong announced its own plans to pass a law vetting all public officials for their loyalty to Beijing.