Photo/Illutration Police officers stand guard outside the West Kowloon Magistrates' Courts in Hong Kong on Nov. 19. (AP Photo)

In a democracy, it is common practice for anti-government advocates to seek to have their preferred candidates win a majority in a parliamentary election.

However, in a verdict that could only be called irrational, Hong Kong’s High Court on Nov. 19 not only ruled such an attempt illegal, but also sentenced all 45 pro-democracy defendants to prison for four years and two months or longer.

Legal scholar Benny Tai, the most prominent among the defendants, was given 10 years.

In 2020, Tai organized an unofficial “primary election” to select appropriate candidates for an upcoming Legislative Council (LegCo) election. The purpose was to get those democracy advocates to become a majority and force the chief executive of Hong Kong to resign.

But Tai and his fellow democracy advocates were prosecuted for “attempting to paralyze Hong Kong’s government and topple the city’s leader” in violation of the national security law.

And the High Court confirmed that charge.

This decision not only negated political activities that should be free and democratic to begin with, but also ran counter to the basic principle of the autonomy of Hong Kong citizens.

The source of this travesty traces back to 2019, when the eruption of a series of large-scale anti-Beijing demonstrations in Hong Kong alarmed the Xi Jinping administration into bypassing the LegCo to enforce law and order in Hong Kong.

China then passed the national security law during that year’s National People’s Congress.

The court’s decision resulted from a broad interpretation of that national security law, and that in itself was clearly tantamount to an abuse of that law.

The LegCo election system has since been revised to allow candidacy only to individuals who have been confirmed by Beijing as “patriots.” In short, all dissidents have been effectively eliminated from the election process.

In China, there still exist legislators who are called “people’s representatives.” However, with the Chinese Communist Party managing all elections, it is impossible for “ordinary citizens” to run, and this is the system that was forced on Hong Kong.

Moreover, all trials in Hong Kong concerning the national security law are presided over by government-approved judges. Hong Kong has lost even its long-defended judicial autonomy, too.

The national security law has stripped Hong Kong citizens of their freedoms, and media organizations that are critical of Beijing and the Hong Kong government have been muzzled.

Jimmy Lai, the founder of the Apple Daily newspaper that has been forced out of publication, is still under trial for alleged violation of that law.

Looking around the world, we notice authoritarian regimes gaining influence under the guise of democracy.

Even though elections exist as a system that makes them look as if they have the public’s support, in reality they are merely deteriorating into procedures for sabotaging opposition candidates and enabling vote-counting fraud.

Is the situation in Hong Kong going to be a new example of that reality? But the fundamental laws that were established at the time of Hong Kong’s reversion to Chinese rule promised to codify a system whereby the chief executive and all LegCo members will be elected democratically.

Hong Kong citizens are keeping their mouths shut and enduring their ordeal for now. We are with them in spirit and will keep demanding autonomy for Hong Kong.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 20

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