In Hong Kong, democracy has been gutted too quickly and unmistakably for voters to have any confusion about what has happened.
During the recent election season, the China-Hong Kong government systematically prevented persons who care about democracy and freedom from standing for office. The crackdown left Hong Kong voters who also care about democracy and freedom with no one to vote for in the district council elections conducted on December 10.
Many of these disenfranchised Hong Kongers did not exercise their merely nominal right to vote. ABC reports that only 27.5% showed up at the polls this time around, as opposed to the 71.2% who voted “at the height of anti-government protests in 2019.”
According to Reuters, Hong Kong authorities had no patience for the few who tried to protest the sham (“Hong Kong activists arrested in city’s ‘birdcage’ election,” December 10, 2023):
Three Hong Kong pro-democracy activists were arrested on Sunday, just before voting began in a “patriots only” district election that has marginalised formerly popular opposition figures in the city amid a national security clampdown.
The pro-China government has been seeking to boost turnout, as some observers see large numbers spurning the polls, in contrast to the last council elections in 2019, during Hong Kong’s mass pro-democracy protests, which drew a record 71% turnout and a landslide victory for the democratic camp.
Police arrested three members of the “League of Social Democrats” in the Central business district, the group said. It had planned to protest against the “birdcage election” that it said lacked any democratic scope, given vetting requirements by authorities that have effectively barred all democrats from running….
Security was tight around many polling stations with over ten thousand police deployed to maintain order….
Turnout was 15.47% at 2:30 p.m. (0630 GMT), down from 42% at the same time in the previous election.
When you destroy something that people care about and replace it with an obvious fake, they might not even pretend to care about the fake.
Also see:
StopTheChinazis.org: “Pro-democracy Parties ‘Failed to Field’ Candidates in Rubble of Hong Kong’s Democracy”
“NHK notes that candidates for Hong Kong’s district councils must secure nominations from members of government-appointed committees. The people that the government appoints to these committees know that democracy is being extinguished in the new Hong Kong and that a good way to get in trouble with the Chinese state is to do any kind of democracy-enabling.”
Associated Press: “How Democracy was dismantled in Hong Kong in 2021”
“Again and again throughout the year, the city’s authorities and the central government in Beijing stamped out nearly everything the pro-democracy movement had stood for. Activists fled abroad or were locked up under the draconian National Security Law imposed on the city 18 months ago. Unions and other independent organizations closed down.
“Where once Hong Kong allowed ‘open opposition and questioning of the government’s core policies and legitimacy…any meaningful policy debates will now take place among a small circle of government loyalists,’ said Kurt Tong, partner at The Asia Group and former U.S. consul general in Hong Kong and Macao.”
