China seeks absolute political control over Hong Kong

Chinese President Xi Jinping at the session of the National People's Congress last year in Beijing.Mark Schiefelbein / AP

China will open this Friday the annual session of its National People's Assembly (ANP, the Chinese Legislative), in which it is expected to further tighten its political control over Hong Kong.

The solemn gathering of the country's top leaders and nearly 3,000 delegates at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing this year has special significance for the Xi Jinping government: in addition to the equivalent of the state of the nation address that he will deliver, as Every year, Prime Minister Li Keqiang will present the new five-year plan, with which he will direct the national economy until 2025. And, just months before the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, he will want to project an image of confidence and power.

The session, which will close on the 10th and which has filled Tiananmen Square with red flags, will take place marked by strict security measures to prevent possible outbreaks of covid, although the country has already given the disease almost completely controlled within its borders.

Last year, this meeting - the main political event of the year in China - was postponed by two months due to the pandemic.

On the table of issues to be debated - and to be approved, in a Parliament in which only a handful of "no's" are registered in each vote - is a profound reform of the Hong Kong electoral system.

The objective, to prevent the Democratic opposition, already very weakened since last year the ANP approved the draconian law of National Security for Hong Kong, from accessing power through the ballot box.

The person in charge for Hong Kong in the Chinese Government, Xia Baolong, already advanced it last week: only the “true patriots” - those who love the Chinese motherland and support the Communist Party - will be able to represent the autonomous territory in any area of power, be it executive, legislative or judicial.

This weekend representatives of the Hong Kong government and the Chinese authorities were meeting in the border city of Shenzhen to address the matter.

“Those who oppose them… will not be allowed to have a stake in the political power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the official name of the former British colony).

Not now, not ever, ”Xia declared in his speech.

Among the possibilities that are considered for this reform is the abolition of the 117 positions of district councilor, the lowest level of Government, but the only one that is decided by pure popular vote.

The presence of opposition representatives in the committee of 1,200 notables charged with appointing the head of the autonomous Executive could also be eliminated.

To this would be added another series of provisions to prevent Democratic candidates from being able to win a majority in the Legislative Council (LegCo), the 70-seat Hong Kong parliament.

The ANP session will open five days after 47 of the main opposition representatives - from 23-year-old former student leader Joshua Wong to political veterans - were formally charged under the National Security law with the charge of "conspiracy to subvert the power of the State ”.

The indictment, which can carry life imprisonment if convicted, relates to the alleged participation of these politicians and activists in the holding of an informal primary election in the summer of last year.

With them, they wanted to select a single candidacy that would give the opposition more chances of victory in the legislative elections scheduled for September 2020. Finally, the legislative elections were postponed for a year with the argument of the fight against the covid;

in November, the entire Democratic caucus resigned from the LegCo.

“Despite its breadth, the National Security Act was never intended to control dissent and guarantee a centralized mandate over Hong Kong on its own.

Other support measures have been in the works for some time.

The European Union must be prepared for the fact that the ANP will continue to use its legislative power to change the political and constitutional order of Hong Kong ”, warns analyst Katja Drinhausen, in a report by the German think-tank Merics.

The meeting at the Great Hall of the People will begin with Li Keqiang's speech, in which he is expected to give clues on economic and political priorities for the next 12 months.

It is taken for granted that, unlike what had been traditional, it will not offer a figure as a growth target, as it already happened last year due to the pandemic.

But the highlight will be the presentation of the 14th five-year plan and the "vision for 2035", which will guide the economy for the next 15 years, the deadline that has been set to achieve "socialist modernization."

At that time, as Chinese President Xi Jinping indicated last November, by advancing the guidelines of both documents, Beijing aims to double its GDP per capita.

The session is expected to provide clues as to what kind of investments and economic policy priorities it intends to adopt to achieve this.

It has already provided some keys.

Among other things, it will focus on meeting its climate commitments.

These include reaching carbon neutrality by 2060, a challenge for the world's largest emitter, which continues to have coal as its main source of energy.

It also plans to promote technological and scientific innovation, which it hopes to become the engine of its economy for the next three decades.

With this, it aims to reduce its dependence on the outside world in key sectors -semiconductors, for example- and to shield its economy against external turbulence, a need that became clear to it during its commercial and technological war with the United States.

Along with the development of high technology, other key priorities will be self-sufficiency and the promotion of internal consumption, the main circuit of the "dual circulation" -the second is formed by exchanges with the outside- that it envisages as its economic strategy of the next years.

It will also seek "qualitative growth", which reduces the brutal differences in development and opportunities between the country and the city, and the imbalances in income.

Something that will not only increase domestic consumption, but will also facilitate social stability, the great priority of the Chinese Government.

Throughout the session, and facing the party's centenary on July 23, the Chinese Government will present an image of firmness of its leader, Xi Jinping, and the success of its system, to which it attributes "institutional advantages" that have allowed the almost complete triumph of the fight against the covid and a growth situation - 2.3% last year - that the rest of the large economies have not been able to achieve in 2020, weighed down by the pandemic.

• Beijing's repressive spiral in Hong Kong

• Hong Kong indicts nearly 50 opposition politicians for "conspiracy to subvert state power"

"The world is going through profound changes, but time and momentum are working in our favor," Xi said in a speech in January during a meeting to prepare the five-year plan.

"This is where we show our conviction and resilience, as well as our determination and confidence," he added.

These days, the gigantic halls of the Great Hall of the People will hear similar words.