Hong Kong election fixed, activist insists Thomas Maresca
Three years after umbrella protests, China’s influence still looms over choice of new chief executive
HONG KONG Days before a controversial election, a student who became the face of the city’s pro-democracy protests in 2014 said Chinese communist leaders are squelching political freedom in this former British colony.
“Autonomy is at a low point in Hong Kong,” said Joshua Wong, 20, who led the “umbrella” movement against Beijing ’s crackdown on the drive for open elections to choose Hong Kong’s chief executive. The protest got its name from the umbrellas students used to repel tear gas fired by police.
China, however, didn’t give in to the student demands. Instead of a popular vote, Sunday’s election of chief executive is a three-person race of candidates approved by Beijing. The winner will be chosen by a 1,200-member election committee.
Former chief secretary Carrie Lam, the No. 2 under outgoing Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, is favored by Beijing and expected to win. The other candidates are John Tsang and retired judge Woo Kwok-hing.
“It is a selection rather than an election,” Wong said in an interview near the Central Government Offices, where the protests kicked off three years ago. “Who becomes chief executive is still under control of the Beijing government.”
China’s growing control of Hong Kong affairs alarms Wong and other activists.
They see Beijing ’s influence in an upcoming trial of four democratically elected members of the Hong Kong Legislative Council. The four legislators, including Nathan Law, another student leader, face removal by Hong Kong’s Justice Department over charges that their swearing-in oaths were invalid.
When Britain handed Hong Kong to China in 1997, China agreed to a policy of “one country, two systems”: The communists would regain sovereignty, but Hong Kong would maintain its economic and political systems.
“What we worry about is one country, two systems turning into ‘one country, 1.5 systems,’ or finally ‘one country, one system,’ ” Wong said. “China has its own definition of democracy, but in fact it’s totally against rule of law and judicial independence. So that will be a nightmare for us.”
Wong hopes to enlist the support of democratic countries to restore freedom to Hong Kong.
He traveled to the United Kingdom to press his case with members of Parliament and plans to visit the USA to lobby for passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.