In a move that is likely set to further tighten Beijing's hold on the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong, a top Chinese official said it supports "improving" the system related to Hong Kong's Basic Law, which is its de facto constitution.
Hong Kong's Basic Law might be changed
In his speech on Thursday, May 21, Wang Yang, the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) fourth ranked leader and head of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said Beijing will push for the "long-term stability of one country, two systems", Reuters reported.
Wang's remarks were made at the opening of the third session of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC, which is China's top political advisory body.
Image via Xinhua
The annual session, where the advisory body meets in parallel with parliament, starts on Friday, May 22.
Wang continued by saying that Beijing will "support the improvement of implementing the systems and mechanisms of the constitution and basic law".
However, he made no further elaboration on how such an "improvement" is going to be carried out.
In addition, he made no mention of the city's "high degree of autonomy" -- a point that he made in the previous year, Hong Kong Free Press reported.
He avoided mentioning "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" as well.
Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong is supposedly entitled to a certain degree of freedoms and autonomy at least till the year 2047.
Beijing determined to curb Hong Kong protests
Wang also said the committee had supported Hong Kong members to voice their opinions in order to "stop violence and curb disorder" in the SAR.
Wang was referring to the protests that broke out in June last year.
While the protests first started out as opposition against a now-withdrawn extradition law, they later morphed into a larger pro-democracy movement against Beijing's perceived encroachment on the city's freedoms.
The protests, however, have dwindled since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Wang's remarks on Hong Kong are in line with the official narrative adopted by Beijing on the protesters, as violent rioters and terrorists backed by foreign forces.
Hong Kong media: Beijing set to crack down further on "seditious" activities in Hong Kong
Sections of the Hong Kong media view the move as marking an escalation of Beijing's hardening stance towards Hong Kong, which critics say was already set in motion when Chinese President Xi Jinping took office in 2012.
The South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing a Beijing source, said that Beijing is set to introduce a draft resolution allowing the National People's Congress (NPC) -- the country's largely rubber-stamp parliament -- to chart a new law that would ban activities deemed to be seditious, as well as acts of terrorism.
A mainland source also told SCMP the move is meant to bypass Hong Kong's Legislative Council, which consists of opposition politicians that have "shut the window" for the city to enact its own national security law.
Previously, an attempt to implement Article 23 of the Basic Law in 2003 failed when about 500,000 people protested against the move.
The proposed bill, if passed, would allow the Hong Kong government to ban any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the central government in Beijing.
Pro-democracy lawmaker: End of one country, two systems?
While plans to introduce the bill have been shelved since then, the 2019 protests might have prompted a sense of urgency to pass it.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok told The Washington Post that the move means "the end of one country, two systems", and that Xi had made use of the pandemic as cover to crack down on the city's anti-government protests.
Top image via Xinhua