HONG KONG (AP) — China’s senior official overseeing Hong Kong’s affairs mentioned Saturday that protests aren’t the one approach for individuals to precise their views, weeks after town’s strict protest guidelines sparked controversy whereas signaling Beijing’s imaginative and prescient for the monetary hub.
Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office, mentioned the anti-government motion sparked by an extradition invoice in 2019 is a scar that won’t fade away and he warned in opposition to a repeat of such chaos.
Xia’s remarks at a ceremony on China’s National Security Education Day indicated Beijing’s views on town, which is selling its return to normalcy following strict pandemic-related restrictions and political turmoil over the previous three years.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and was promised it may preserve its Western-style civil liberties intact for 50 years after the handover. But after the enactment of a Beijing-imposed nationwide safety legislation following the 2019 protests, many activists have been jailed or silenced amid a crackdown on town’s pro-democracy motion. Major protests have been additionally uncommon beneath the strict COVID-19 guidelines.
In late March, Hong Kong noticed its first licensed protest in opposition to a authorities coverage because the lifting of main pandemic restrictions beneath unprecedentedly strict guidelines, with demonstrators made to put on numbered badges round their necks. That sparked a debate over the erosion of freedom of meeting.
“Demonstrations are not the only way to express one’s interests and demands,” Xia mentioned Saturday, noting that there isn’t any contradiction between safeguarding nationwide safety and expressing one’s views.
Past experiences have proven that causes centered on environmental safety and livelihood points may be simply hijacked, he mentioned.
“People’s good will can be easily exploited and manipulated by others with ulterior motives,” he mentioned. “Demands on livelihood issues can even be distorted into political issues and that eventually trigger social confrontation.”
He mentioned a confrontational society has no future, calling on Hong Kong to construct a local weather for rational communication.
“I hope Hong Kong can host exhibitions, develop innovation and technology, strive for economic development, have horse races, dances, stock activities, and earn some money every day,” he mentioned.
Xia additionally described the 2019 protests as Hong Kong’s model of a “color revolution” and mentioned town can not enable its district councils to be managed by anti-China and “destabilizing” forces.
The metropolis’s district councilors largely deal with municipal issues corresponding to organizing building initiatives and guaranteeing that public services are so as. But the pro-democracy camp’s landslide victory within the 2019 election took on symbolic significance on the top of the social motion greater than three years in the past.
Local media earlier quoted sources reporting that authorities deliberate to conduct an overhaul of electoral guidelines for the district council ballot, which is predicted to happen later this 12 months.
In 2021, town amended its electoral legal guidelines for its legislature, drastically lowering the general public’s capability to vote and growing the variety of pro-Beijing lawmakers making choices for town.
Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong has additionally had an impression on Taiwan’s politics. While it’s nonetheless unclear how the Hong Kong scenario will have an effect on the self-ruled island democracy’s presidential and legislative elections subsequent 12 months, the 2019 protests in Hong Kong have been seen as a significant motive behind Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s victory in 2020.
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