China's strict new electoral law for Hong Kong is in effect.
This clearly limits the opposition's room for maneuver.
Hong Kong threatens to become a source of conflict with Europe.
Beijing / Hong Kong / Munich - Beijing's recently tightened rules for Hong Kong's electoral law are in place.
China's President Xi Jinping signed two edicts on Tuesday amending the Hong Kong Constitution accordingly.
The plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) had already waved through the electoral reform at the beginning of March.
On Tuesday, the NPK Standing Committee approved the reform law.
The reform met with clear criticism from Europe and the USA when it was passed.
It restricts democracy in Hong Kong, so the allegation.
The former British crown colony of Hong Kong is officially governed according to the principle of “one country, two systems”, which guarantees Hong Kong “a high degree of autonomy” until 2047, including free justice and freedom of the press.
Critics now see these freedoms increasingly at risk.
The reform of the electoral law increases the Hong Kong parliament from 70 to 90 seats.
But of these, significantly fewer MPs are allowed to be directly elected by the electorate than before: 20 instead of the previous 35 MPs.
This means that even before the reform, only half of the MPs were free to vote - which was decided jointly by London and Beijing.
Since the return of Hong Kong to China, the democratic opposition had therefore fought for full democratization.
The second stumbling block was the electoral committee for the head of government, which consists of 1,200 handpicked voters from the Beijing-friendly camp.
Vague promises of direct elections were never fulfilled.
For the last time there were violent protests and riots in 2019.
These protests are seen as the trigger for Beijing's decision to crack down on Hong Kong.
Hong Kong electoral reform: less directly elected MPs - strengthening pro-Beijing camp
Following the reform of the electoral law, 40 members of the Hong Kong parliament are now sent from the Prime Minister's election committee.
Another 30 MPs will come from different sectors of the economy who will internally designate their representatives.
As a rule, these MPs are also part of the Beijing-friendly camp.
The reform will enlarge the committee for the election of the Hong Kong head of government by 300 to 1,500 members.
The 300 additional voters belong to patriotic groups and the Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body in China's political system.
In contrast, as before, the city's 117 district councils are no longer represented.
The district councils are the only truly freely elected bodies in Hong Kong - and after the last election, 90 percent of the 452 seats went to the democratic camp.
This may have contributed to the decision to remove the district officials from the committee.
It is currently unclear whether democratic candidates will even be allowed to run for elections in the future.
The reform sets up a committee to review the qualifications, loyalty and patriotism of all candidates towards China - based on information from a police security unit.
The committee will only include senior Hong Kong officials, said Prime Minister Carrie Lam.
Lam again defended the reform against critics who see the new suffrage as a lever to suppress the opposition.
She is convinced that "improving the electoral system" and the establishment of patriots in the administration "can effectively alleviate the excessive politicization of society and the internal divide that has torn Hong Kong apart," said Lam.
Democrats still have a chance: “One should not assume that all Pan-Democrats are unpatriotic.
That would be very unfair to them, ”said Lam.
How this will look in practice should be shown by the parliamentary elections scheduled for December at the latest.
Ivan Choy of the Faculty of Government and Public Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong expects
the Democrats to win a maximum of 16 seats in the election
, according to a report by
Reuters
.
China and EU: Hong Kong is the second source of conflict after Xinjiang
Critics in the West see the law as a "death knell for Hong Kong democracy", as the chairwoman of the human rights committee in the Bundestag, Gyde Jensen (FDP), described it.
Jensen called on the EU foreign ministers on Tuesday to coordinate with international partners such as the USA and Great Britain immediately.
"It must not only be about coordinated individual sanctions, but also about how we people who can no longer live in Hong Kong under these new circumstances can make it easier for them to stay in our countries," said Jensen.
The issue is therefore likely to worsen the conflict between Europe and China.
The EU had just imposed sanctions on four officials and a state organization for human rights violations in northwest China's Xinjiang region - to which Beijing responded with retaliatory measures that hit ten politicians, scientists and think tanks.
Another sanctions dispute is likely to make cooperation on climate protection, for example, even more difficult.
The EU-Chinese investment agreement CAI, which was signed in December but not yet ratified, is also in danger.
It makes it easier for European companies to gain market access to China.
Critics complained about the missing paragraphs on occupational safety anyway.
CAI could now fall victim to geopolitics.
Foreign fashion chains such as H&M, Nike or Uniqlo from Japan have already got into the maelstrom because they have not been purchasing cotton from Xinjiang for months - and are now being boycotted, at least temporarily.
H&M and Nike, for example, disappeared from several online shopping platforms.
Hong Kong: Problems for the Democracy Movement - Self-Censorship in the Cultural Sector
In June 2020, Beijing enacted a controversial security law in Hong Kong.
It is directed against activities that China sees as subversive, separatist, terrorist or conspiratorial.
China-friendly parties and parts of the economy - including small shops - welcomed the law and the end of the protests as it had brought calm to the city.
In the spring, pro-Beijing groups publicly solicited signatures for the electoral reform that has now been introduced.
+
View from Kowloon over the harbor to Hong Kong Island (archive picture): Quieter life, less democratic leeway
© Jerome Favre / EPA
For the democracy movement, however, the situation has darkened.
Well-known activists have been sentenced to prison terms in recent months, accompanied by occasional protests.
Other activists, on the other hand, fled abroad for fear of prosecution.
Political pressure and self-censorship have also increased in the cultural sector.
For the first time in over half a century, the Oscars will not be broadcast on Hong Kong television this year.
For "purely commercial" considerations, it was decided not to broadcast the gala this year, said a spokeswoman for TVB on Monday.
However, the
Bloomberg
news agency
reported that the Chinese Communist Party propaganda department had instructed all state media not to show the gala live.
One reason is apparently the nomination of the Norwegian short film "Do not split" via the protest movement in 2019 as "Best Documentary Short Film".
Several cinemas had also withdrawn the film, and a university canceled a planned exhibition of press photos.
On Monday, Hong Kong's new contemporary art museum, M +, announced that a photo of artist Ai Weiwei from Tiananmen Square with his middle finger outstretched will not be in its opening exhibition.
(ck with dpa and AFP)