As widely expected, on March 5, Mr Wang Chen, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, made a statement explaining the motion on improving the electoral system of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, likely to be moved on March 11.

Based on details disclosed by Mr Wang, major changes would be made to the Chief Executive Election Committee to revise its composition and method of formation, and expand its representation. The committee would be given new powers to elect a substantial proportion of Legislative Council members and to “directly nominate all members of the Legislative Council”. The latter function would mean that the committee could take on the responsibility of ensuring that candidates for Legislative Council elections fully meet the “patriots rule Hong Kong” criterion, among other statutory requirements.

The United States has already condemned the planned changes as undermining the “autonomy and democratic processes” of Hong Kong, and declared that it would “galvanize collective action” to oppose Beijing’s moves.

Yet on closer examination of Hong Kong’s democratic development, the planned arrangement would amount to no more than reverting to the position in 1998, when the Chief Executive Election Committee could elect among themselves 10 members of the Legislative Council

Yet on closer examination of Hong Kong’s democratic development, the planned arrangement would amount to no more than reverting to the position in 1998, when the Chief Executive Election Committee could elect among themselves 10 members of the Legislative Council. The numbers returned by the Election Committee were reduced to six in 2000.

In the early years after the reunification, Beijing was prepared to expand in stages mass participation in the election of Legislative Councilors, as promised in Article 68 of the Basic Law, which spells out the election of all members of the Legislative Council by universal suffrage as the “ultimate aim”. 

With Beijing’s endorsement, the directly elected component of the Legislative Council was expanded progressively from 20 in 1998 to 24 in 2000, and to 30 in 2004. Five at-large “functional constituencies” for District Councilors were created in 2012, bringing the total number of Legislative Councilors elected by universal suffrage to a majority of 40.  

Hong Kong was on course toward forming a Legislative Council with all members elected by universal suffrage. The process was unfortunately derailed by events emerging since 2013, which took Hong Kong’s democratic development in a risk-laden direction in contravention of Hong Kong’s constitutional status as a special administrative region of China, and harmful to China’s sovereignty, national security and Hong Kong’s own prosperity and stability.

In early January 2013, in the vain hope that he could mobilize the masses to pressure Beijing into agreeing to a faster pace of election of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage, academic Benny Tai Yiu-ting urged Hong Kong people to “Occupy Central with Love and Peace”, which resulted in the unlawful occupation of Hong Kong’s central administration and business districts for 79 days in late 2014.

In 2015, legislators from the “pan-democratic” camp, who were bent on seizing power in complete disregard of the constitutional principles laid down in the Basic Law, voted against the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s decision on the arrangements for electing the Chief Executive by universal suffrage.

In 2019, riding on public concerns about a bill which would send fugitive offenders to the Chinese mainland for trial, instigators turned a civil protest into an increasingly violent movement, including alarming episodes of attacks on police stations, the Legislative Council and the Central People’s Government’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong, and calls for Hong Kong independence. The attempts to de-legitimize the police force and to overthrow key organs of power in Hong Kong contained elements which would amount to “seditious conspiracy” under the US federal criminal code.

The District Council elections in November 2019 took place against a background of prolonged anti-China violence, resulting in heavy losses for the pro-China camp. Large numbers of anti-China candidates with subversive or separatist agendas and little competence were elected. 

To make matters worse, a band of activists led by Tai followed up in 2020 by organizing “primary” elections to mobilize voters to seize a majority of seats in the Legislative Council elections in September, with the goal of vetoing all government bills and motions, especially the budget, to force the resignation of the Chief Executive. The game plan was to trigger foreign sanctions on China, should Beijing step in to restore order.

After years of neglect in identifying and blocking the loopholes in our electoral system, our electoral systems for both the Chief Executive and Legislative Council elections are no longer capable of ensuring that candidates who truly care about the nation, respect the Constitution and the Basic Law, and are committed to implementing the “executive-led” governance system under “one country, two systems”, are elected. The outcome for the nation, including Hong Kong, would be catastrophic if candidates who harbor subversive or secessionist intentions, or collude with external forces, are elected to the Chief Executive post or the seats of the Legislative Council.

Under the existing electoral systems, Hong Kong is fast approaching the brink and could fall off the cliff if the central government does not take decisive actions to install guardrails that prevent disaster. As an inalienable part of China, Hong Kong must be governed by true patriots. No country would permit rabble-rousers determined to undermine national interests to seize power. The electoral reform under consideration by the National People’s Congress, which has clearly been carefully drawn up to ensure the sustainability of “one country, two systems”, is timely and fundamental to our continuous well-being.

The author is a member of the Executive Council and former secretary for security of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. 

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.