North Korea in Disguise:
How Dictators Manipulate Hong Kong Elections
By Jack Rider
Date: 4 August 2022
Hong Kong SAR flag flying alongside the Chinese banner.
Courtesy of Lianqing Li (2008): https://flic.kr/p/5MuinT
On the 8th of May, a new Chief Executive (CE) has been elected in Hong Kong. Former Secretary for Security, John Lee, has received the mandate from Heaven, i.e., the recognition of the Beijing Authorities, and successfully became the 4th leader of Hong Kong. While Lee is elected in an unrigged election, there have been strong voices of criticism against his ascendency, which is seen as a deterioration of Hong Kong democracy.
Most criticism stemming from the fact that Lee had been the former Deputy police commissioner and had experience with crackdowns against protesters. In this article, I will quickly run through why Lee is so different, when compared to other chief executives, and why so many people regard Lee’s inauguration as a threat to Hong Kong democracy and marks the beginning of an autocratic chapter in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s CE is never elected directly by its people. While, as a former British Colony, Hong Kong inherited the common law of the UK and most of its institutional traditions during the colonial era, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not grant Hong Kong people the right to elect their leader. According to Appendix I of the Hong Kong Constitution, the Hong Kong Basic Law, ‘The Chief Executive shall be elected in accordance…by an Election Committee which is broadly representative, suited to the actual situation of Hong Kong…and represents the overall interests of society’.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that both the PRC and the Hong Kong government have not provided a concrete definition for the meaning of ‘broadly representative’ and ‘overall interests’. This provided room for political manoeuvring as the government could change the terms and conditions at will without the need for judicial interpretation. Nevertheless, as the PRC has promised in Article 45 that the ‘ultimate aim is the election of the Chief Executive by universal suffrage’, the Hong Kong elite and the British government accepted the PRC’s acquisition of Hong Kong in 1997 despite not being promised a democratic election for the CE.
Having made it clear that direct suffrage was never an option, we can turn to examine what made Lee’s inauguration so different, when compared to the previous CEs. Despite all of them have been elected by the Election Committee and appointed by Beijing according to the Constitution, the power mechanism at play behind the scenes has changed massively. We could assess the situation through two aspects, namely the way Beijing showed support to the candidates before the election and the statistical data that arises from the actual election.
Hong Kong Protesters lining up to form a human chain in demonstration against police brutality.
Courtesy of Studio Incendo (2019): https://flic.kr/p/2jyWpZr
What Made this Election Special?
Although Beijing has always in some sense demonstrated its attitude towards the candidates, it has never openly interfered in past elections. For instance, during the First Chief Executive Election campaign in 1996, Chinese President Jiang Zemin shook the hands of candidate Tung Chee-Hwa during an Election Committee meeting, ignoring other members and nominees. However, when later questioned by the Hong Kong media about whether this act symbolised China’s appointment before the election, Jiang denied it and claimed that it was only an act of encouragement.
Similarly, during the 2012 Election, while it is commonly assumed that only Pro-Beijing candidates would be successfully elected, Beijing refused to comment openly and only stated that they wish the election to be ‘open and fair’ as well a ‘competition between gentlemen’. Nevertheless, in the 2017 Election, Beijing started to take a step forward. During a meeting with Hong Kong pro-Beijing politicians, the Central Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) asserted that Carrie Lam is the only candidate that the Party would officially support. Nevertheless, this was still just a private demonstration of attitude, and the candidates still had to run their campaign to win the approval of the general mass.
In the 2022 Election, however, Beijing has directly asked Electoral Committee members to vote for Lee and openly stated that the new CE must be a ‘Patriot that stands firmly together with his/her nation, and will be able to counter foreign interventions’. By the word ‘Patriot’, Beijing essentially means that the new leader of the former Pearl of the Orient has to be a strong supporter of the Party, as the Party is the only legitimate leader of China.
These statements were made during a meeting with multiple Electoral members and were allowed by the Chinese officials to be made public after the meeting. This situation could find an equivalent in the UK if the Queen directly claims that she supports a certain Party or Candidate to run for election. While it is not necessarily illegal, this form of public declaration could be seen as an absolute tremblement of Hong Kong’s independent sovereignty and its trias politica (separation of power) model of government. By formally declaring its support for a certain candidate, Beijing essentially defies Hong Kong’s electoral mechanism, despite its de facto uselessness, and turns the Election Committee into an official rubber stamp.
‘Refuse Rigged Elections’. A demand protesters set as early as 2014 during the Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution.
Courtesy of Ping_Fan (2014): https://flic.kr/p/pcn7hW
Statistical Changes Due to Beijing Intervention
These changes in attitude are even more apparent when we look at the statistics available from the Elections. In the 1996 Election, 4 Candidates were running for CE, with victor Tung Chee-Hwa receiving 80% of the votes. Due to criticisms for elections being too monotonic, Beijing unofficially allowed more people to join in during the 2012 and 2017 Election, with 3 candidates each. The two candidates received 65.6% and 66.8% of the votes respectively. From these data, we could see that even though Beijing did have preferences in past elections, multiple candidates are allowed to run and that there has been a larger degree of freedom among Electoral Committee members.
Nevertheless, in the 2022 Election, Lee, the only candidate running for CE, received 99.4% of the Votes. The reason why there was only a single candidate running was both due to the pressure from Beijing, as well as the fact that most Democrats are serving their prison sentence due to their political activities. Claiming that this election is the victory of ‘Democracy with Hong Kong Characteristics, China congratulated Lee on his success and wished that Hong Kong could develop more prosperously in the future. This scenario finds its counterpart in one of the best socialist countries in the world, North Korea.
In the last general election of North Korea, the Worker’s Party of Korea received a total of 87.5% of the seats, with the other seats won by parties that ‘voluntarily’ came into coalition with the Worker’s Party. And of course, in the indirect Election for Supreme Leader, Kim, the only candidate, has received 607 out of 687 votes and resumed his reign. According to Kim Il-Sung in 1963, North Korea is a country that stands for public emancipation, political independence and mutual respect. If one could count North Korea as a democratic country, Hong Kong is undoubtedly ranked among one of the most robust democracies of all time. However, whether that is the actual case remains open for discussion.
North Korean flag weaving along the morning breeze in Pyongyang.
Courtesy of Stephan (2019): https://flic.kr/p/2yHrAM