"Hong Kong’s freedoms shrink by the day."

Wall Street Journal

OPINION

REVIEW & OUTLOOK

Hong Kong’s Endangered Elections

The Communist Party moves to outlaw any political opposition.

By the Editorial Board

July 14, 2020

Hong Kong’s freedoms shrink by the day, but its people won’t give them up without a fight. Beijing fears an embarrassing defeat in the September Legislative Council elections, so it now seeks to outlaw political opposition.

Over the weekend some 600,000 people cast votes in democratic primaries, which aren’t part of Hong Kong’s formal political process but determine who will run against pro-Beijing candidates in September. Hong Kong’s elections are rigged to favor Beijing’s choices, but this year the pro-democracy camp hoped to gain enough seats to prevent the worst proposals from becoming law. In last fall’s district-council elections, Hong Kongers elected pro-democracy candidates in a landslide.

The Communist Party is determined not to repeat this humiliation. New national-security legislation, imposed by Beijing last month, already makes dissent a crime in Hong Kong. And Chief Executive Carrie Lam warned Monday that if the pro-democracy camp seeks enough seats to resist government policy, “then it may fall into the category of subverting the state power, which is now one of the four types of offenses under the new national security law.” China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office called the primaries a “flagrant provocation” under the new law, and the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau opened an investigation into whether they undermined the integrity of elections.

Beijing's goal is to intimidate candidates and voters. Under the new law, the maximum punishment for subversion is a life sentence, and convicted violators are barred from holding office. Beijing fears even a largely symbolic demonstration of democratic opposition to Communist Party rule.

We keep reporting on the fate of Hong Kong because it is on the margin of what is likely to be a long contest between Western values and China’s ambition to spread its authoritarian model far and wide. Hong Kong’s bravery demands the world’s attention.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that the high participation in the primaries shows Hong Kongers’ “desire to make their voices heard in the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to suffocate the territory’s freedoms.” The government’s threats demonstrate its “fear of democracy and its own people’s free thinking,” he added.