Only MPs loyal to China were allowed to run for office.
(Photo: dpa)
Beijing It was one of the last few opportunities for Hong Kong residents to be critical. The boys in particular took advantage of them – by not voting in protest. The proportion of eligible voters who cast their vote in the Hong Kong parliamentary elections on Sunday fell to a record low. It was a blow to the Chinese leadership in Beijing, which has completely changed the once liberal and open financial metropolis in the past two years.
Since the draconian and very broadly interpretable State Security Act was imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing, it has become dangerous there, too, to openly criticize the city government or the Chinese leadership. More than 150 critics of the regime have been arrested since it came into force, including Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai and democracy activist Joshua Wong.
The election of parliament was also only a shadow of the earlier options for co-determination in the Chinese Special Administrative Region. Beijing had cut the electoral system dramatically.
There was a stipulation that only “patriots” were allowed to apply for a seat in parliament – patriots in the sense of Beijing. Anyone who expressed the slightest criticism of the Chinese government or the Communist Party was not allowed to stand for election.
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The city government knew about the resentment in the population and had tried in the days before the election to get the Hong Kong people to vote. The use of local public transport was free on the day of the election. Many private, even international companies urged their employees to go to the ballot boxes – sometimes with pressure, sometimes with the promise of a day off. The Hong Kong government was so nervous that it threatened the Wall Street Journal with a critical editorial on the subject.
In the end it was of no use.
More: 20 years in the WTO: How China turned from a beacon of hope into a threat