Why ‘relaxing’ Beijing meetings are a thing of the past for Hong Kong delegates

Those appointed to the country’s top political advisory body will now have to prove they are putting the work in, Standing Committee member Jonathan Choi Koon-shum says

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Published: 7:02am, 6 Apr 2018Updated: 7:02am, 6 Apr 2018

Hong Kong’s 200 or so advisers to Beijing now have to prove their worth through annual reports of work accomplished, in line with a recent reminder to them that China’s annual “two sessions” of the national legislature and top political advisory body should be treated as serious business.

“The demands became stricter this year,” Jonathan Choi Koon-shum, one of the city’s newly elected Standing Committee members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said of the meetings held last month in Beijing.

Choi said all 2,158 CPPCC delegates, who were from around the country, are now appointed on three criteria: their political beliefs, incorruptibility and personal image.

The opening session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference in Beijing's Great Hall of the People last month. Photo: AFP

You cannot be an CPPCC delegate only if you are rich … you have to be presentable with an appropriate image

Jonathan Choi Koon-shum

“You cannot be an CPPCC delegate only if you are rich … you have to be presentable with an appropriate image,” Choi told the Post in an interview last week.