Phil C. W. Chan

Opinion | National security law and one-man election race show Beijing’s plan for Hong Kong is right on track

The election of John Lee in a race in which he was the sole candidate, the exodus of unpatriotic Hongkongers and the mass arrests under the national security law all point to everything falling into place

Rule of law in Hong Kong remains alive and well, it would seem, with judges recently expressing concerns about prosecutorial delays in national security cases

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Police stand outside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai during the chief executive election on May 8. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Phil C. W. Chan

Published: 6:45am, 11 May 2022

Everything in Hong Kong has fallen into its rightful place. John Lee Ka-chiu was elected last Sunday as the next chief executive, by 1,416 of 1,461 patriotic Election Committee members in an election where there was no one else to choose. Of the remaining 45, eight voted against Lee, four cast blank ballots, and 33 did not vote.

The notion of choice is anathema to Hong Kong’s stability, as the decades-long battle for universal suffrage has shown.

As Lee marks the third devout Catholic out of five Hong Kong leaders since 1997, after Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, the pious could almost be forgiven for believing that everything that has happened in our city in the past 25 years was designed by God to test the will, endurance and faith of Hongkongers.

Unpatriotic Hongkongers who do not wish to be part of China’s new Hong Kong are embarking on an exodus. The mass arrests of 53 pro-democracy activists in January 2021 for subversion, after they held a primary election in July 2020 – two weeks after China’s imposition of a national security law on Hong Kong – were a sign of God’s wrath.

Of the 53 arrested, whose ranks include lawyers, former legislators and district councillors, social workers, medical professionals, journalists and academics, 47 were charged in February 2021, with 34 currently remanded in custody. They face the possibility of life imprisonment. Under Article 42 of the national security law, bail must be denied unless there are sufficient grounds to believe the defendant “will not continue to commit acts endangering national security”.

Many others have also been charged with secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces under the new law, or with sedition under the Crimes Ordinance, including for publishing children’s books about sheep.