Green Paper and Political Reform in Hong Kong

IMGXYZ764IMGZYXAt a Carnegie Endowment seminar on Monday, September 17, 2007, Alan Leong, a member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, provided a detailed analysis of the future of democratic development in Hong Kong and a personal critique of the Green Paper, a recently released proposal issued by the current Hong Kong government on how to expand Hong Kong’s democratic process.  Mr. Leong, who represents Kowloon East, ran last March against Donald Tsang, the incumbent Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), in the first ever contested Chief Executive Election held since the reversion of sovereignty to China in 1997.  Director of China Program Dr. Minxin Pei moderated the seminar.

Mr. Leong began the discussion with an expression of concern regarding the gradual decline of Hong Kong’s significance to the West ten years after the reversion of its sovereignty.  He reminds the audience that given its close ethnic, geographic, and cultural tie with mainland China, in addition to its 130 years of interaction with the West, Hong Kong not only remains a city that combines the excellence of East and West, but more importantly has become an inspiring example for the mainland in areas such as economic development and political governance.  In that sense, Hong Kong continues to be a relevant issue that China-watchers in the West cannot afford to ignore.

Mr. Leong then strongly criticized the current electoral system of Hong Kong as unfair and incapable of delivering any type of representative governance that qualifies under the principle of universal suffrage.  The Legislative Council has 60 seats, in which 30 are elected by popular vote in geographical constituencies, and the other half elected based upon the so-called functional constituencies.  However, Hong Kong citizens are only allowed to exercise their political rights in geographical constituencies, while the voting right for latter half of the Council is concentrated in small interest groups such as professional associations, business organizations and labor union, which represent only 6.45 percent of the entire population.  These privileged groups of people are also the only eligible voters that can elect members onboard Election Committee, the electoral college that selects the Chief Executive.  In other words, the majority of Hong Kong people have been marginalized as “second-class citizens” that are prevented from choosing their own leaders.  The Chief Executives elected under the current election system are unrepresentative, therefore unable to address diversified interests of the different sectors within society.

The proposal introduced by Mr. Leong is an innovative approach to modify the current election system in Hong Kong.  It would emphasize the principle of universal suffrage without violating Article 45 of the Basic Law, which bars Hong Kong citizens from directly electing legislators that are currently represented by functional constituencies.  Rather than vote for a specific person, Mr. Leong proposed to allow citizens to vote for their preferred parties in the functional seats.  Under the modified election system, the Hong Kong people would be permitted to cast two votes: one for legislators that represent geographic constituencies, and one for the parties that occupy function seats of the Legislative Council.  Such proposal reflects a much greater extent of flexibility and innovation than the current system.

On the other hand, the democracy implementation proposal presented by the incumbent government in form of Green Paper has been criticized by Mr. Leong as a confused, uncertain, and insincere plan that “hinders democratic process” and “depresses public will.”  It is a mere collection of repetitive options without specific suggestion on implementation.  The Green Paper would not address the absence of fairness in the existing election system; rather, it reflects Beijing’s lack of confidence toward Hong Kong people’s capability in governing themselves.

Finally, Mr. Leong took issue with Beijing’s worries that democracy in Hong Kong will lead to a loss of control.  Even if Hong Kong becomes fully democratic, it would be very unlikely for anyone with a radical anti-Beijing agenda to get elected, given the pragmatism of the Hong Kong people.  Mr. Leong concluded his remark with the sincere hope that Hong Kong would eventually become a beacon of democratic transition.

This summary was prepared by Wayne Chen, Junior Fellow in the China Program