The LegCo election has no bearing on how Hong Kong is run. A chamber of pro-government ‘all-patriots’ won’t ask hard questions or debate alternative policy approaches, let alone try to stall unpopular measures. But the process and outcome of the heavily staged polls tells us about the authorities’ concerns behind closed doors.
The new body of lawmakers will be quite a bit younger than its predecessor, with few if any members whose public lives predate 1997. Quite a few are likely to be individuals who had no public presence prior to 2019. This is likely to include people with no previous ties to pro-Beijing political groups, and some who have Mainland business and other links. This suggests that the higher powers want a more uniformly reliable pool of people who can be groomed for higher-profile roles in the future.
The authorities also seem to be seriously concerned about boosting the credibility of both the election and the resulting council. This is an uphill struggle. The shift to an ‘all-patriots’ legislature entailed the introduction of multiple – indeed, superfluous – barriers to candidacy in the form of nomination and screening systems, ensuring only a select few can get on the ballot. Competition and charisma are in short supply. At the same time, the percentage of seats filled by universal suffrage has shrunk.
Officials are trying hard to squeeze a higher turnout from what is inevitably going to be a largely apathetic electorate. The government is encouraging civil servants to vote, and everyone is invited to follow the progress of comely candidate ex-fencer Vivian Kong.
A Reuters piece explains…
Some analysts say Kong’s star allure and fighting spirit will help spotlight an institution criticized as a pro-Beijing echo chamber with little authentic debate, that drew a record low turnout of 30.2% in 2021.
Senior Hong Kong officials have sought to drum up voter participation after the poor previous showing, while major chambers of commerce, several Chinese state-owned enterprises and some Hong Kong companies have urged people to vote.
Telecom operator PCCW said it would provide half a day of paid leave for staffers to cast ballots, local media reported.
“Beijing wants to rejuvenate the profile of candidates through Vivian Kong’s participation, such that more young people will be aware of the election,” said Sonny Lo, a political scientist who has authored several books on Hong Kong politics.
(Don’t call PCCW that day: “All our lines are busy. Please hold for another four hours until our customer service assistant returns from her half-day off.”)
“This is likely to include people with no previous ties to pro-Beijing political groups, and some who have Mainland business and other links. This suggests that the higher powers want a more uniformly reliable pool of people who can be groomed for higher-profile roles in the future. ”
It’s because Beijing knows HK’s traditional Pro Beijing camp is loyal garbage. They literally said as such through one of their Party School professors before the first patriots only election which ruffled a few feathers.
Beijing figured this was local pro Beijing camp’s chance to show they were more than loyal garbage. The loyal garbage was (s)elected and performed more or less how everyone expected (didn’t even bother have enough people show up to hold a quorum resulting in dubiously passed bills).
And now Beijing is taking out the trash. Good riddance.
I do think the collective kick in the teeth against the trash tier patriots is well deserved and long overdue.
I just walked past some banners from the New People’s Party (Vagina’s patriotic outfit). Now, I understand that the DAB and FTU have support amongst the grannies and uncles in places like Yuen Long and Wong Tai Sin. But what is the constituency of the NPP? In case you didn’t know, only people with a university degree can become members of the NPP so they are quite ambitious, not to mention elitist. And those folks don’t bother to vote, in general.
“Beijing wants to rejuvenate the profile of candidates through Vivian Kong’s participation, such that more young people will be aware of the election,” said Sonny Lo, a political scientist who has authored several books on Hong Kong politics.
A mid tier footballer would have been a better pick, then.
Gotta love the Hong Kong government — only they would come up with the scheme of picking a “star power” candidate solely to leverage their celebrity pulling power and get the public interested, only to then run them in an uncontested “functional” “constituency” that nobody is interested in and where absolutely nobody gets to vote.
Hurr durr.
Re PCCW: customer service staff on the English lines seem to all Filippina, probably not even with PR yet. But hopefully they will enjoy the ‘perk’.
“But what is the constituency of the NPP? ”
Civil Servants and upper middle class professionals. Basically pragmatic blue ribbon types. Vag certainly managed to find voters so I think whoever she designates as her successor can too.