China’s NPC to ensure ‘patriots’ in charge in Hong Kong: official

Parliament’s planned measures to ‘improve’ Hong Kong’s electoral system are likely to further marginalise pro-democrats.

China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) will discuss a proposal to overhaul Hong Kong’s electoral system to ensure “patriots” run the territory when it begins its annual meeting in Beijing on Friday, in what could be the biggest blow to the city’s democracy since it was returned to Chinese rule in 1997. Zhang Yesui, a spokesman for the NPC, said on Thursday the rubber-stamp body had the constitutional power to “improve” Hong Kong’s system and that the electoral structure needed to fully implement the principle of “patriots governing Hong Kong”. Hong Kong’s Cable TV and Now TV, citing unnamed sources, said the changes would include increasing the size of the election committee that selects Hong Kong’s leader from 1,200 to 1,500 people, and the city’s legislature from 70 to 90 seats.