Another day, another fatuous totalitarian initiative in formerly free Hong Kong. This one proposes to erase all doubt, at least as ever verbally expressed by “lawmakers,” about the virtues of the guys calling the shots (“Hong Kong proposes new rules to ban lawmakers from ‘vilifying’ Beijing,” The Independent, July 5, 2025).
The rules, aimed at enforcing loyalty, include a five-tier penalty system with possible suspensions and pay cuts for violation of the code.
The new code of conduct was proposed in the Hong Kong Legislative Council (LegCo) this week and is expected to kick in at the start of the next legislative term, pending review by the House Committee.
The legislators should “sincerely support the Chief Executive” and the Special Administrative Region’s (SAR) government while performing their duties in a constructive manner, according to the document.
“They should not intentionally vilify the governance credibility of the Chief Executive and the SAR Government, nor should they deliberately undermine or weaken the effectiveness of executive-led governance,” it adds.
It also calls for the thorough implementation of the principle of “patriots administering Hong Kong”, referring to the mandates that only individuals who are loyal to Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can hold public office in Hong Kong.
The specification of “intentional” and “deliberate” vilification and undermining of the executive power as being subject to penalty suggests the possibility of getting away with “unintentional” and “accidental” vilification and undermining.
But how does one accidentally slam Hong Kong’s dictator, John Lee Ka-chiu, or China’s dictator, Xi Jinping, as a tyrant and nincompoop? Or as a senseless villain, hourly promise breaker, clay-brained and knotty-pated tallow-catcher, craven miscreant, super-serviceable finical rogue, one-trunk-inheriting slave, plague sore, rampallian, fen-sucked brassy nut-hook, or tedious fool? No, I don’t think anyone could get away with it. Truth is no defense in such a regime. To impugn the embossed carbuncles running Hong Kong and China without being punished under the proposed regulations would require irony so subtle as to be invisible.
The logical end of the road of Hong Kong’s strangulating reforms is dissolution of the legislative council and other pretenses of democracy. This won’t happen, though, since Party propagandists find the pretenses useful.
