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Hong Kong electoral changes
OpinionComment
Regina Ip
Regina Ip

Opinion | Watch how Hong Kong charts its own course on democracy

  • US-led criticism of Hong Kong’s Legco election should not be taken seriously when the sustainability of American’s own democratic system is in question
  • Beijing’s revamp of Hong Kong’s electoral system rightfully seeks to rid it of the Western concepts of political equality and polyarchy

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An attendee walks past the stage for the Legislative Council election in Hong Kong, early on December 20. The newly elected legislators have a historic mission to rebuild Hong Kong under Beijing’s rules. Photo: Bloomberg
Regina Ip
Hong Kong’s Legislative Council election, held under revamped electoral rules on December 19, was rebuked by the US-led Five Eyes coalition, G7 nations and the European Union as undermining Hong Kong people’s rights and freedoms and depriving the new legislature of “meaningful political opposition”, among other accusations.
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As if anticipating such criticism, on December 20, China issued its first-ever white paper on Hong Kong’s democratic progress under “one country, two systems”. Beijing argued that it is the real promoter of Hong Kong’s democratic development, and that under the improved rules, Hong Kong’s democratic development will have a bright future.

Democracy is no doubt the centrepiece of Western nations’ moral high ground and underscores the US’ claim to lead the world. It has evolved over 2,000 years, from the days of the Greek city state of Athens, and has taken many forms.

The sustainability of America’s democratic system, however, is being seriously questioned by its own scholars of democracy as reaching “a moment of great peril and risk”. Since the US presidential election last year, “across state legislatures, Republicans have challenged the legitimacy of the 2020 US presidential election and altered election rules on party-line votes, with a clear intent to entrench minority rule”, they wrote in November last year in a joint letter urging Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act.

US President Joe Biden speaks during the virtual Summit for Democracy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on December 9. Photo: Bloomberg
US President Joe Biden speaks during the virtual Summit for Democracy in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington on December 9. Photo: Bloomberg
Such partisan erosion of free and fair elections hardly provides a credible basis for the US to host a democracy summit to “strengthen” and “renew” the democratic system, or to lead the world.
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