China Rules Out Open Hong Kong Elections

Hong Kong: Democracy Promises Ring Hollow

Updated: 11:47am UK, Sunday 31 August 2014

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent

"How Hong Kong develops its democracy is completely within the sphere of the autonomy of Hong Kong. The central government [in Beijing] will not intervene." So said Lu Ping in 1993.

Mr Lu was the main representative of the Chinese delegation in the delicate negotiations for the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997.

Today, for many, those words will feel deeply hollow.

At the heart of the 1997 "handover" was a pledge by China to honour the "one country, two systems" framework.

Under that agreement, known as the "Basic Law", Hong Kong would become part of Communist-ruled China but would be guaranteed autonomy to manage its own political, legal and social matters.

The Basic Law gave Hong Kong a "high degree of autonomy" and "executive, legislative and independent judicial power".

Crucially, the paper, endorsed by China, stated that the Chinese mainland's "socialist system and policies shall not be practiced" in Hong Kong.

"The previous capitalist system and way of life shall remain unchanged [in Hong Kong] for 50 years," it reads.

Until now, the territory's top political figure - the Chief Executive - has been chosen by a small election committee.

Today, Beijing has endorsed, for the first time ever, a proper framework for Hong Kong's first "direct" leadership election in 2017.

Good news you might think.

Given the wording in the Basic Law, which states explicitly that "universal suffrage" is the "ultimate aim" for Hong Kong, today's announcement from Beijing should have underlined the territory's political autonomy and allowed Hong Kongers to choose their leader with less, not more, interference from Beijing.

Yet the opposite has happened.

China's leaders have significantly tightened the threshold of eligibility for Chief Executive candidates.

You see, the 1997 "basic law" had small-print in it.

It states that Beijing has the final say over any interpretation or amendment of it.

And it appears the new leaders in Beijing are interpreting the paper differently from their predecessors and are amending it accordingly.

So, in the 2017 "election" (when the next Chief Executive will be chosen) Beijing has stipulated that each candidate must receive votes from half of a new "nomination committee" in order to be eligible to run.

Given that the nomination committee is made up of many pro-China loyalists placed there by Beijing, no democratic candidates will make it onto the ballot paper for the vote in 2017.

Beijing will successfully filter out any candidates it deems unacceptable.

We can expect protests and possible violence in the coming months.

The Occupy Central movement, which held a mass demonstration in July, has said it is prepared to bring the financial heart of Hong Kong Island to a standstill through a campaign of "mass civil disobedience".

Beijing has warned against "foreign interference".

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said it will not tolerate the use Hong Kong "as a bridgehead to subvert and infiltrate the mainland".

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