Hong Kong’s Electoral Crackdown
This article was written as part of an application for the Financial Times Paul McClean Graduate program.
On January 6th, the Hong Kong Police Force arrested more than 50 prominent pro-democracy political activists and lawmakers citing ‘subversion’ under the recently enacted National Security Law. The timing of these arrests, on the same day global attention was firmly fixed on the US senate run-off races in Georgia and the unanticipated attack on the Capitol, exposes Beijing’s calculated hand.
This latest crackdown was a direct response to the unofficial July 2020 primary held by the democratic camp in which over 600,000 Hong Kong Citizens cast their votes. Electoral support for the democrats has been high ever since their landslide victories in the local district council elections of November 2019. The democratic and localist camp seemed poised to secure an unprecedented majority in the September 2020 Legislative council (Hong Kong’s Legislative Assembly) elections before they were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
This would have been some feat considering the legislative council is already stacked in Beijing’s favour due to functional constituencies. Functional constituencies are professional or industry interest groups which are institutionalised and entrenched within the political system. In the case of Hong Kong, these groups permanently hold 30 out of 70 electoral seats. The members usually back the government due to the investment and business interests their members have on the Mainland.
In 2016, 22 out of 30 functional constituencies went to the Pro-establishment camp, showing that their legislative majority is based on industry support. Beijing wants to reform this system even more in its favour, demonstrating its fear of popular politics undermining its rule in the territory. A senior Chinese official stated that advanced talks are underway to carry out structural changes to how Hong Kong elects its Chief Executive (the highest office in the territory).
These latest arrests of potential Legislative Council challengers were said to have been executed with a high level of coordination from Beijing. Recent escalation in the application of the ‘National Security Law’ demonstrate Beijing’s increased appetite for interference in Hong Kong. Benny Tai, a key democratic strategist and a former lawyer, has described the environment created by the sweeping National Security law as a ‘harsh winter’.
This environment has also emboldened the city’s embattled police force to implement the Media Accreditation policy, enabling the police to exclude independent freelance and student journalists. According to Cédric Alviani (Bureau Head at Reporters Without Borders (RSF) East Asia) this will allow the police to ‘arbitrarily deny accreditation for media that displeases it’. Particularly affecting freelance and student journalists who typically had greater staying power when protest violence escalated, like the Polytechnic siege.
Academic freedom has also been under assault, with a teacher’s license being revoked by the education bureau due to discussing independence. This is the first example of this occurrence, demonstrating the far-reaching implications of the National Security Law. Analysts and activists alike are closely watching to see which of Hong Kong’s cherished and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms Beijing will tighten its icy grip on next.
Image credit: 17jiangz1, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
