Beijing to tighten its hold on HK elections

BEIJING: A largely pro-beijing committee that elects Hong Kong’s leader will also choose a large part of the legislature, a top Chinese official announced on Friday as part of a major revamp that will increase central government control over Hong Kong politics.

The changes are part of a draft decision submitted on the opening day of the weeklong meeting of the National People’s Congress, China’s ceremonial legislature, which will all but certainly endorse it.

The election committee will participate in the nomination of candidates for Hong Kong’s legislature and also elect “a relatively large share” of its members, said Wang Chen, vicechairman of the NPC’S standing committee.

He did not say how many legislators would be chosen by the committee. Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said it would be 30 seats in an expanded 90-seat legislature.

That would be a significant rollback of democracy in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous territory that has greater freedoms than mainland China but has seen them sharply cut back in the past year. The election committee selected up to 10 members in earlier versions of the city’s legislature, but hasn’t done so since the 2000 election.

Wang added that the size, composition and selection of the 1,200-member election committee will also be adjusted, and the city’s leader will continue to be elected by the committee.

Currently, half of the city’s now 70-member legislative council is directly elected by voters. The other half is elected by professional or special interest groups from sectors such as insurance, engineering and agriculture.

With the largely pro-beijing election committee nominating all candidates for the legislature, opposition figures could be barred from running in elections.

The draft changes came after the top Beijing official overseeing Hong Kong, Xia Baolong, declared that Hong Kong must be governed only by “patriots”.