Hong Kong's opposition-devoid legislature on Thursday approved Beijing's radical overhaul of the city's political system which reduces the number of directly elected seats and will freeze out most China critics.
China ordered sweeping changes to Hong Kong's electoral system, the latest step in an ongoing crackdown on the city's democracy movement after massive and often violent protests.
The changes will ensure a large majority of politicians are selected by a reliably pro-Beijing committee and that every candidate must first be vetted by national security officers.
The legislature will be expanded from 70 to 90 seats, but only 20 of them will now be directly elected, down from 35.
Hong Kong has never been a democracy, something at the root of years of growing political unrest, but a vocal minority opposition was allowed in the city's legislature.
When Hong Kongers can vote they tend to do so overwhelmingly for pro-democracy candidates, something that has rattled authoritarian Beijing.
China's leaders moved to stamp out that opposition and dismantle Hong Kong's limited democratic pillars after massive protests broke out in 2019 followed by pro-democracy candidates taking local district council elections with a landslide.
Their first step was to impose a national security law last year that outlawed much dissent.
More than 100 prominent democracy supporters, including opposition politicians, have since been arrested under the law.
Beijing then turned its attention to the city's political system.
Hong Kong authorities have trumpeted the electoral reform as a way to return stability.
"The changes will expand Hong Kong's balanced and orderly political participation, and safeguard Hong Kong's overall and fundamental interests," Constitutional Affairs Minister Erick Tsang said Thursday, adding critics "ignored the chaos" of the last few years.
Politicians overwhelmingly approved the bill soon afterwards with 40 votes in favour and two against.
Under the new political system it is unlikely many, if any, opposition figures will be allowed to stand.
Some observers have likened the new system to a more restrictive version of Iran's political system, where only those approved by the country's authoritarian leadership can run in elections.
Hong Kong's formerly raucous legislature was already cleared of pro-democracy opponents when they resigned en masse late last year after three of their colleagues were disqualified for their political views.
Since then, the government has fast-tracked a number of laws with limited scrutiny and dissent.
Earlier this month the legislature approved new powers allowing the government to sack public office holders and bar election candidates from standing if they are deemed "disloyal" to local authorities or China.
In April it approved a new immigration bill in an afternoon that critics warned gave authorities power to stop people leaving the city without a court order.
Tiananmen crackdown vigil banned
Meanwhile, Hong Kong police on Thursday banned next month's vigil marking Beijing's deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown.
The Hong Kong Alliance, which has organised the annual vigil for more than three decades, said police cited the coronavirus pandemic in their refusal, making it the second year in a row that authorities have refused permission.
"We will continue to fight for the right to mourn June 4 lawfully," the alliance said, adding it planned to appeal.
Confirming the ban, Security Minister John Lee said, "anyone who participates in it (the vigil) will violate the law", and warned a sweeping new national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year could be used against those who defy the ban.
"The national security law clearly states that if anyone organises, plans or carries out any illegal means to damage or overthrow the fundamental system under the Chinese constitution, it would constitute subverting state power," he told reporters.
A Hong Kong democracy activist holds a candle in June 2020 as he joins others for a vigil to remember the victims of the 1989 Tianenmen Square protests. Source: AP
Hong Kong has regularly marked the anniversary of Beijing's deadly 4 June, 1989 repression of protests in Tiananmen Square with huge candlelight vigils.
Crowds have grown in recent years as many residents chafe under Beijing's increasingly authoritarian rule.
Last year's event was banned for the first time, with police citing the coronavirus pandemic and security fears following huge and often violent democracy protests that had convulsed Hong Kong the year before.
Tens of thousands defied that ban and massed peacefully at the vigil's traditional site in Victoria Park.
Since then prosecutors have brought "unlawful assembly" charges against more than two dozen prominent democracy activists who showed up at the vigil, some of whom have already been jailed.
