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District councils to be purely advisory bodies formed by patriots, Beijing’s top official overseeing Hong Kong quoted as saying
- Xia Baolong, director of Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, lays down explicit criteria for this year’s poll for municipal bodies that were once bastion of opposition
- Director also meets chief justice and Law Society representatives, unlike his predecessor during similar visit in 2011
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Hong Kong’s future district councils will be purely advisory bodies formed by patriots to prevent a repeat of the “chaos” of the 2019 anti-government protests, Beijing’s top man overseeing the city’s affairs has said, spelling out the clearest criteria yet by a senior mainland Chinese official for the municipal-level poll.
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The remarks by Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO), were quoted by several pro-Beijing district representatives who met him for about an hour on Friday morning on the second day of an extended fact-finding visit.
“[Xia] said the reformed district councils must be formed by patriots so that the chaos of the 2019 extradition bill saga will not happen again,” former district councillor Wong Chun-ping said.
“He said no matter how the councils are formed in the future, they are purely advisory bodies responsible for genuinely relaying people’s views. They should also support the chief executive’s work and the government’s policies.”
The director’s remarks were the most explicit statement of the criteria for the coming poll, due to be held this year, laid down by a senior mainland official since Beijing overhauled the electoral system in 2020 to ensure only “patriots” ruled Hong Kong.
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The reform followed months of anti-government protests triggered by the extradition bill, which was eventually aborted. The proposed law would have allowed for Hong Kong to transfer suspects to the mainland and other jurisdictions not covered by existing agreements.
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