Feb 22, 2021, will be remembered as an important day in Hong Kong history as Xia Baolong, vice-chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee and director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, delivered a thorough explanation of “patriots governing Hong Kong” and emphasized that the concept must be institutionalized throughout the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region establishment to guarantee that all key government posts, the Legislative Council, and the judiciary are held by true patriots; and that absolutely no one hell-bent on subverting State power and messing up Hong Kong will ever hold public office. His speech practically signaled the beginning of Hong Kong’s “cultural and intellectual return” to the motherland.
China officially resumed the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, but, because of various historical reasons, many local residents did not fully trust the motherland and instead held resistant and even hostile sentiments toward the sovereign state. Back then, in order to achieve a smooth transition from British to Chinese rule, almost all the crucial administrative functionaries, including the civil service, and such vital institutions as the judiciary, as well as the education sector, remained unchanged from the colonial era. That arrangement, commonly known as the “through train”, was meant to prevent transitional hiccups in Hong Kong and adverse effects on the reform and opening-up drive on the mainland.
No country in the world would knowingly let political parties or individuals hell-bent on destroying its basic system be a part of the government
Meanwhile, as the Chinese nation became stronger and increasingly perceived as a rival by the Western powers in the past two decades or so, Hong Kong has been used as a beachfront for hostile external forces to launch campaigns to undermine the administration of the HKSAR government, as part of their global strategy to contain China. Many “political elites” recruited by Western powers have found their way into the HKSAR governance establishment, particularly LegCo, through loopholes in the existing electoral system. They have caused tremendous damage to Hong Kong through illegal movements over the years, forcing the central authorities to take decisive actions to uproot the scourge. It is fair to say the “black revolution” of 2019, which started in the guise of mass protests against the now-withdrawn extradition law amendment bill in June that year, was a turning point for Hong Kong.
The central government has no choice but to push for electoral reform in Hong Kong, so as to plug any loophole that allows subversive elements into the HKSAR establishment to do the hostile external forces’ bidding from the inside.
In political science, “governance by patriots/loyalists” is both common sense and a matter of course for all sovereign states in the world. When Hong Kong was under colonial rule, all important government posts were held by British officials sent from London. For example, all top-ranking officers of the police force, principal officials of the government and even many lesser administrators were all British nationals. Apparently, to the UK rulers, only British nationals qualified as patriots in “patriots governing Hong Kong” back in the day. It is only fair for China to fully implement the principle of “patriots governing Hong Kong”, which is part and parcel of the “one country, two systems” principle from the very beginning of its conception. Justice is better late than never.
Anti-China external forces and their proxies in Hong Kong are understandably mad about the “patriots governing Hong Kong” requirement, and it is not surprising at all that they accused Beijing of using electoral reform as a means to “suppress the pan-democrat camp”. After all, calling the right thing wrong is what they do best. They conveniently ignore the fact that Deng Xiaoping, chief architect of “one country, two systems”, stressed repeatedly long before the “pan-democrat camp” became a thing that “patriots governing Hong Kong” is the original intent and a precondition of “one country, two systems”, not to mention the fact that “governance by patriots/loyalists” as a political value is sanctioned by political ethic, as has been embraced by all Western democracies as we know them.
No country in the world would knowingly let political parties or individuals hell-bent on destroying its basic system be a part of the government. As a matter of fact, many countries have outlawed such political parties and organizations altogether. For example, the Proud Boys, a right-wing extremist group in the United States that played a major role in the “Capitol insurrection” last month in support of former president Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, was named a terrorist group by the Canadian government early this month. Imagine what Ottawa would do to a Canadian version of the Proud Boys.
To ensure “patriots governing Hong Kong”, the SAR must reform its electoral system and the civil service recruitment and promotion mechanisms so that only true patriots are allowed to hold key public offices. The next and more important step would be facilitating Hong Kong society to reunite with the Chinese nation culturally and sentimentally.
The author is a current affairs commentator.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.