Observers have cautioned that Hong Kong may face a bumpy future after the anti-establishment camp, especially younger candidates who advocate greater autonomy or even independence, seized more seats than in the previous term in elections to the region’s Legislative Council (LegCo).
The council was already plagued by filibusters and if these delaying tactics continue given the bigger presence of more radical anti-establishment lawmakers, it could further cast a shadow on the region’s future economy and politics, said the experts.
The anti-establishment camp won 29 of the 70 seats in the legislature, with 23 pan-democrats and six localists. The pro-establishment camp took 41 seats, down from the 43 they won in the 2012 election, Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po reported, citing the final election results released Monday.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying told a press conference on Tuesday that he would soon start communicating with the new LegCo members, and would arrange for them to visit the Chinese mainland to learn more about the nation’s development and Hong Kong policies.
The new LegCo members include 23-year-old Nathan Law Kwun-chung, a student leader of the Hong Kong Occupy protest, and Yau Wai-ching from Youngspiration and Eddie Chu Hoi-dick from Land Justice League who support “self-determination.”
Law said he would not be afraid of conflict in the council, Lianhe Zaobao quoted him as saying.
The central government issued a statement on Monday, noting that certain candidates were publicly advocating for “Hong Kong independence,” which is absolutely unacceptable.
Barriers to interaction
The election result could bring barriers to future interactions between the central government and Hong Kong, and Hong Kong may end up lagging behind the rest of the country, Tian Feilong, assistant professor at Beijing-based Beihang University and an expert on Hong Kong, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“I can’t imagine the future situation. The local government will have to listen to the LegCo, which will have almost half the seats from the anti-establishment camp, no matter if it’s for legislation or funding,” Choy So-yuk, a former legislator and member of DAB, a major pro-establishment party in Hong Kong, told the Global Times.
It won’t only make officials’ lives and careers difficult, but the lives and welfare of the people would worsen as well, Choy said. “I’m very worried.”
The members who support Hong Kong independence would form a challenging camp that for sure would discuss this topic in the council and seek to obstruct other political arrangements with the central government, Tian said.
“If Hong Kong continues to stay in this fever of localism and over-politicization, and won’t calm down to think about its own identity and economy, it would be highly likely that relations between Hong Kong and the mainland will get worse, and they will lose development opportunities in the ‘Belt and Road’ initiative,” Tian noted.
Political priority
Some 2.2 million Hong Kong residents voted in the 2016 LegCo election, accounting for 58 percent of the population, the highest in history.
“This historic number of people who voted shows how sharp the conflict is and how severe the problem is, as many people are concerned about politics nowadays in Hong Kong,” Zhang Dinghuai, deputy director of the Center for Basic Laws of Hong Kong and Macao at Shenzhen University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
“Hong Kong is transforming from economy-priority to democracy-and-politics-priority, especially for the young generation, who hope to promote the Western democratic ideology through protests and win positions in the LegCo,” said Queena Fan, a Hong Kong resident who has lived there for seven years.
“Hong Kong is an international metropolis that relies on tertiary industries, I think it should be more tolerant,” Wang Tanqing, who comes from the Chinese mainland and lives in Hong Kong, told the Global Times on Wednesday. http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1005288.shtml
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