Beijing vows to scrap democracy that doesn’t even exist

The CCP wishes to remind us that it is really serious about cleansing Hong Kong’s public space of critics, opponents and people who think for themselves. Even all those District Council members you elected will be methodically ostracized by the administration – excluded from the many consultative and other bodies they have sat on for decades, as well as the rubber-stamp CE Election Committee. (More on Beijing’s planned ‘improvements’ to elections to ensure ‘rule by patriots’ here.)

To repeat from yesterday, Hong Kong has never had a system in which anyone you vote for will have any power if they win an election. All political power lies with officials picked by Beijing – or (nowadays) by those seconded from the central and other Mainland authorities. Fixing alleged loopholes in the largely Potemkin electoral system is about banishing non-kowtowers from even symbolic contact with government or access to official platforms. It will also provide another pretext, as if the NatSec law isn’t enough, to purge undesirables from public positions. 

Note that Xia Baolong includes the judiciary among those who run Hong Kong – which is not new, but you wish they’d stop saying it. Bottom line: if judges wish to keep their ‘independence’, they’d better start doing what they’re told. He also states that anyone who does not accept the CCP cannot qualify as a patriot. What this guarantees – if it’s any consolation – is that those still sitting on councils and committees will be entertainingly stupid.

As if to prove it, the pro-Beijing rump Legislative Council members dutifully welcome not just the plan, but the fact that they will have no say on it. LegCo president Andrew Leung puts on a brave face over his chamber’s irrelevance by declaring that ‘as long as you are patriotic, you can have any views’

But wait! It gets stupider! Never one to miss an opportunity to blurt out something both perplexing and dimwitted, Chief Executive Carrie Lam adds that those who ‘forget they are Chinese’ are also excluded. So no race-traitors, please. It would be naive to wonder whether or how the city’s barbarian ethnicities fit in.

Pan-dems who once spent their days sitting on futile committees, running ward offices and campaigning should consider themselves liberated from a charade that has zero remaining legitimacy. Abandoning once feisty forums like LegCo – and the associated ‘elections’ – to Beijing’s embarrassing mediocre sycophants will be a political win.

This entry was posted in Blog. Bookmark the permalink.

9 Responses to Beijing vows to scrap democracy that doesn’t even exist

  1. where's my jet plane says:

    Carrie Lam adds that those who ‘forget they are Chinese’ are also excluded.
    A family problem there, Carrie, or have your husband and sons given up British nationality?

  2. Revolution says:

    A small amount of enjoyment can be obtained when reading articles about yesterday’s pronouncements and kowtowing by replacing the word “patriot” with “idiot”.

    Good spot on the Carrie Lam comment. Non Chinese not welcome. How far are we away from attacks in the street on ethnic minorities? 3 years? 2 years?

  3. Chinese Netizen says:

    “Chief Executive Carrie Lam adds that those who ‘forget they are Chinese’ are also excluded. So no race-traitors, please. It would be naive to wonder whether or how the city’s barbarian ethnicities fit in.”

    So I wonder if Approved Super Kow Tower A. Semen is having second thoughts about going full retard Chay-na a few years ago? Or does he have permanent Thai residency (acquired when he had his palace built there) and maybe even a pp in a wall safe for Oz or Kiwiland?

  4. FeiLo says:

    after yesterday pronunciamientos, Hong Kong as a international financial and service hub is finished. Any company there with some sense left will have now to orderly move out from the territory to other destinations, be it in China or elsewhere, it makes no sense to be located in another Shanghai on the south. This also signals the mainlanders have now their sights set firmly on Taiwan, just to avoid the creation of another democratic ruled territory that has the chance to become an international finance centre (technologically they are already).
    Now is the time to check where many “patriots” having passports, citizenship, family and assets conveniently tucked abroad pass most of their time and professional life, and require they put their money where their mouth is. A few revocations and expulsions (starting from dear Lam own spawn and hubby) will undoubtedly drive home the point that behaviour does indeed bear consequences.

  5. Cassowary says:

    We know a purge of all pan-dem District Councilors is coming, but I would like to see the international headlines if they expel Paul Zimmerman specifically for the crime of being a pasty Dutchman.

  6. Reactor #4 says:

    On other matters, has anyone noticed how lovely the weather has been? I honestly cannot remember a Hong Kong winter ever being this short – just a week or so in early January. It makes me glad to be alive. Three cheers for global warming.

  7. Casira says:

    @Cassowari I thought zimmerman was a chinese national as he was candidate for legco elections

  8. Low Profile says:

    “What this guarantees – if it’s any consolation – is that those still sitting on councils and committees will be entertainingly stupid.”

    Not so entertaining when they are spending our money, including on their salaries.

  9. Mary Melville says:

    Our Sec for Constipational is savoring his role at the middle of the table, chest puffed and inspiring, he imagines, fear and trembling into the hearts of our redoubtable district representatives. One can only imagine the hours spent rehearsing in front of a large mirror.
    But they have youth on their side and will ultimately prevail.
    The mass resignation from Leggers threw a spanner in the works, so perhaps a similar exodus of DCs may be the only viable option to death by a thousand cuts.

Comments are closed.