Photo/Illutration Former Hong Kong Chief Secretary John Lee poses for a photograph on April 13 before submitting his candidacy for the election of chief executive in Hong Kong. (AP Photo)

Hong Kong’s upcoming leadership election will be far from a democratic process of selecting a candidate for public office.

The dreary picture of how the poll is shaping up raises serious concerns about the future of democracy in Hong Kong, which was once one of the most vibrant and free-wheeling cities in Asia.

John Lee, a career police officer turned strong-arm security chief, is set to be elected as Hong Kong’s new chief executive on May 8.

Lee is a hard-liner who commanded the government’s iron-fisted crackdown on pro-democracy protestors. Pundits say his rock-solid loyalty to Beijing has helped him win the favor of the Communist Party leadership.

Initially, there were other possible candidates. But none of these potential rivals to Lee dared to run after the Chinese government indicated that the territory’s former chief secretary should be the “only candidate.”

In Hong Kong today, any move to disobey Beijing would entail serious political and economic risks. For the city, Beijing’s intervention in the election means it no longer has any freedom of choice--even from pro-Beijing politicians--for its leader.

No member of the pro-democracy camp, which has been struggling to resist China’s tight control over the former British colony, was allowed to run in the election or become involved in the vetting process for candidates.

The total lack of critics of Beijing in the process is a result of a series of dramatic changes to the electoral system the Communist Party government implemented last spring.

The changes, introduced under the slogan of “governance by patriots” in Hong Kong, were aimed to exclude completely pro-democracy supporters from elections.

Elections in Hong Kong have become nothing but formalities to rubber-stamp Beijing’s choices.

The Chinese government has continued proclaiming that Hong Kong should be governed in line with its “one country, two systems” principle.

With regard to the process of choosing Hong Kong’s chief executive, the region’s basic law still stipulates that “the ultimate aim is the selection of the chief executive by universal suffrage.”

China’s blatantly authoritarian actions of imposing a straitjacket control over Hong Kong in recent years have run counter to all these principles.

Beijing has been steadily stepping up its intervention in Hong Kong. In February, Chinese President Xi Jinping gave direct instructions to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam over the local government’s handling of the city’s massive COVID-19 outbreak.

It is unprecedented for a Chinese leader to openly give directions concerning the administrative affairs in Hong Kong, which is guaranteed “a high degree of autonomy” under Chinese rule.

Lee is keen to enact a local law for national security, which bans any act of treason, secession, sedition and subversion against the central government.

Citizens staged massive protests against the proposed local legislation. It is hardly surprising that the solo candidacy of Lee has raised fears that Hong Kong will become a “police city.”

The turmoil in 2019 has led to a bitter division between the pro-China and pro-democracy camps in the city. But China has since made a flurry of aggressive moves to tighten its control of the city, seriously undermining such basic principles of democracy as press freedom and judicial independence.

Hong Kong’s leader should now focus on healing the corrosive political division among citizens. If the local administration continues suppressing dissent and steps up its crackdown on citizens calling for freedom, it will strangle Hong Kong’s civic society and destroy its future.

The city’s new chief executive should fulfill his due responsibilities by paying serious attention to the voices of citizens who have been excluded from the electoral process and face squarely up to the popular will.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 21

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