Hong Kong’s elections yesterday saw several pro-independence candidates winning legislative seats, including Nathan Law (羅冠聰), the youngest elected legislator in the territory’s history and one of the leaders of the 2014 protests that led to the Umbrella Movement. On Sept. 4, an election there served as an insight on the Party’s efforts to have China become known more for its attractive qualities – or “soft power” – than its use of coercive force.
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While mainland coverage of Hong Kong’s legislative elections has been thin on the ground, reactions from official media to polling results – which saw the election of young legislators favoring self-determination for the semiautonomous territory – has been vociferous. The city is ruled under a “one country two systems” deal that protects its freedoms.
Among the four to win are Nathan Law, the 23-year-old leader of the “Umbrella movement” rallies who reportedly polled enough votes to come in second behind a pro-Beijing candidate, thus guaranteeing himself a seat in the council.
Nominees were competing for 70 seats on the LegCo, which passes budgets and laws. “As we are now in a tense situation, so I want to vote for people I support”, said computer programmer Jeremy Lam.
Beijing was last night braced to receive a blow in Hong Kong’s elections as pro-independence candidates were poised to win seats on its ruling council.
Young campaigners have been galvanised by a number of incidents which have pointed to increased Beijing interference. The outcome could pave the way for a fresh round of political confrontations over Beijing’s control of the city. They resurfaced in detention on the mainland.
Independence from China should be an option in future, he said, according to the South China Morning Post, adding that he would work with similarly-minded lawmakers towards this direction.
Hong Kong residents feel they have few other negotiating tactics left in their battle for genuine democracy as Beijing takes an increasingly hard-line stance.
The government also banned the most strident independence activists from standing, causing widespread outrage.
Some localists who were allowed to stand continued to call for independence on the campaign trail.
One of the new parties, Demosisto, champions “political and economic autonomy from the oppression of the Communist Party of China and capitalist hegemony”, according to its website.
Final results showed that overall, pro-democracy candidates won 30 of 70 seats in the Legislative Council, three more than previously, which means they retain the power to block government attempts to enact unpopular or controversial legislation, such as a Beijing-backed revamp of how the city’s top leader is chosen that sparked the 2014 protests. The results are expected to be declared by Monday evening.
But most established pro-democracy politicians do not support the notion of independence and may lose seats to voters who now favour more radical new groups.
And they want a new generation of lawmakers to represent them, as can be seen after veteran lawmakers like pan-democrats Lee Cheuk Yan and Cyd Ho from the Labour party lost their seats despite having good track records in serving their constituents.
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Pro-Beijing legislators usually secure the majority of the council’s seats as the system has reservations for business and special interest groups.
