Hong Kong’s Election Overhaul in Context

On March 30, Chinese lawmakers passed legislation that will dramatically overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system. That legislation—which takes the form of amendments to Hong Kong’s Basic Law—does not stand alone: It appears to be the third in a recent raft of laws that consolidate Beijing’s control over Hong Kong, formally a Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). 

To better understand the election amendments and their potential effects, it’s important to understand both the current context and prior developments that have led to the legislation’s adoption.

The (Proposed) Extradition Law

In February 2019, Hong Kong lawmakers proposed the first relevant piece of legislation, a law that would allow extradition of suspected criminals to mainland China, sparking concern regarding the autonomy of the Special Administrative Region. Millions of Hong Kongers took to the streets in protest against the extradition law, leading Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, appointed to lead the executive branch by the 1,200-member Election Committee in 2017, to formally withdraw the bill in September 2019. For more information on the protests, which began in March 2019 and extended through October of the same year, the BBC and Reuters have compiled informative timelines with key dates throughout the 2019 protests, including the July 1 storming of the Legislative Council (Hong Kong’s legislature). 

The anti-extradition protests eventually morphed into a larger pro-democracy (and in some instances, pro-independence) movement. In the November 2019 district council elections, which were widely perceived as a referendum on the protests, pro-establishment candidates won only 58 of 452 available seats, losing the vast majority of the 300 seats they had previously controlled. Pro-democracy candidates won 389 seats, shattering their record high of 198 seats in 2003, which also came on the heels of large protests against a proposed national security law.

The National Security Law

Even before the pro-democracy landslide in November 2019, the Fourth Plenum of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) 19th Central Committee, a powerful political decision-making body and “board of directors” for the CCP, began taking steps (link in Chinese) to expand central control over Hong Kong in the absence of the scrapped extradition law. While no decision was made at the Fourth Plenum to establish replacement legislation, over the coming months the State Council (essentially China’s cabinet) secretly drafted a report recommending new national security legislation for Hong Kong. A National Security Law was ultimately approved by the National People’s Congress (NPC) in May 2020 and formally passed by the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) in June, following an irregular two meetings of that body in the same month. 

The NPCSC listed the National Security Law in Annex III of Hong Kong’s Basic Law (essentially Hong Kong’s mini-constitution), allowing it to be assimilated into Hong Kong’s “domestic” law, and was subsequently gazetted by Chief Executive Lam on June 30. The text of the law—which was not made public until after its formal adoption—entailed a dramatic extension of central government control. 

Procedurally speaking, the National Security Law prevails over conflicting provisions of Hong Kong law (Article 62), and the NPCSC retains the power to issue legal interpretations of the legislation (Article 65). In substantive terms, Article 55(3) permits the Central People’s Government to exercise jurisdiction over cases where “a major and imminent threat to national security has occurred,” essentially vitiating the need for the scuttled extradition law, while Article 57 provides that the PRC Criminal Procedure Law and “other related national laws” will apply to matters arising under the National Security Law. Articles 12-15 require Hong Kong’s establishment of a Committee for Safeguarding National Security, including a national security adviser designated by the Central People’s Government. This U.S. Congressional Research Service report provides additional background information on China’s National Security Law for Hong Kong.

Broadly, the National Security Law criminalizes “secession,” “subversion of state power,” “terrorism” and “collusion with foreign entities,” with penalties including imprisonment for life. The first arrests under the law occurred only hours after its promulgation, targeting protesters who displayed separatist stickers and pro-independence flags. In February 2021, eight months after the law’s promulgation, Hong Kong authorities charged 47 pro-democracy activists in a single dayBecome a supporter of IT Security News and help us remove the ads.