More Legco sacks 'mean Beijing sees no role for opposition'

Further disqualifications would spell an end to any remaining hope Beijing has in the opposition camp changing its stance and signals the further tightening of China’s grip in Hong Kong’s future elections, commentators said.

Lau Siu-kai, the vice-president of the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said if Beijing moves to disqualify pan-democratic lawmakers, this means the central government “has no more fantasies regarding opposition lawmakers” and that it firmly believes the pan-democrats will only impede the SAR’s governance.

He said it means that Beijing no longer hopes the pan-democrats will change their attitude of opposing the central and SAR governments.

“The central government will not tolerate the opposition hindering the SAR government’s policies and measures in handling severe economic and livelihood problems in the city,” Lau said.

If the SAR government cannot handle the economic and livelihood problems well, public grievances will worsen and the pro establishment camp will lose votes in the next Legco election, he added.

But Lau said he believed that even if all pan-democrats decide to resign, it would not have changed Beijing’s decision.

He also believed the move is not related to the election of US president-elect Joe Biden and Beijing does not fear the reaction from the West.

Political commentator Johnny Lau Yuisiu said more disqualifications would mean the central government will roll out more vigorous measures to govern Hong Kong in the future to make sure controversial policies pass more easily in Legco.

That could include tightening eligibility requirements for members of the Election Committee for chief executive elections.

He also said he believed Beijing’s sudden move might be a test to see how the US will respond to issues in Hong Kong amid the chaos in the presidential election before

Biden officially takes over the White House. “[Beijing] might want to see presidentelect Biden’s position on Hong Kong issues compared to outgoing US President Donald Trump,” Lau said.

“Despite Biden not having the actual authority to deal with the problem in Hong Kong, he will at least take a stance.” Ma Ngok, an associate professor in politics at the Chinese University, said the central government disqualifying Hong Kong lawmakers directly would mean the central government can directly intervene in the formation of Legco, which will lead to greater damage to the one country, two systems principle.

Hong Kong people might think the Legco election is not meaningful, as they might think lawmakers can be disqualified anytime even if they are elected, he said.

Ivan Choy Chi-keung, senior lecturer at the Chinese University’s department of government and public administration, said that as Washington undergoes a transfer of power to Biden, Beijing directly disqualifying pro-democratic lawmakers would not be a wise choice.

“Some people might question whether the Chinese government is taking advantage of this transitional period because they feel the Joe Biden government may be weaker compared to Donald Trump, so I don’t think it will be a wise move, because it will provoke reactions from the international community, such as from the US government,” Choi said.