Alice Wu

Opinion | Behind the bluster, Beijing is really cracking the whip on pro-establishment lawmakers

Hong Kong’s legislative gridlock has drawn statements from Beijing’s representatives. But democrats’ filibusters are old news. Beijing is likely more disappointed that the pro-establishment camp hasn’t broken the gridlock after months of delay

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Pro-Beijing lawmakers meet the media after a House Committee meeting in the Legislative Council on April 24. Photo: Edmond So

Alice Wu

Published: 6:00am, 4 May 2020Updated: 6:02am, 4 May 2020

Back in 2017, when the pro-establishment camp was planning to tighten rules and limit filibustering tactics in the Legislative Council, opposition lawmaker Dennis Kwok Wing-hang was asked whether it was fair for his camp to stall the other side by proposing 34 amendments to Legco’s rules of procedure. His answer? “All’s fair in love and war.”

Filibusters are pretty much the opposition’s sole modus operandi. For years, pro-democracy lawmakers like Kwok of the Civic Party have been delaying government legislation they don’t like by filibustering.

For half a year now, Kwok, presiding over the House Committee as deputy chairman and collaborating with other pan-democrats, has held off electing a chair and prevented bills from reaching a floor vote. And they make no secret of why they are doing this: they mean to stall a final vote on the national anthem bill.

This deadlock has caused the unprecedented release of statements by both the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office (HKMAO) and the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government that directly addressed the way Hong Kong lawmakers conduct their business, bringing gasps of astonishment at home and abroad. Since 1997, HKMAO and the liaison office had, for the most part, taken a hands-off approach and exercised restraint, at least when it came to making public statements.

When they became increasingly assertive following the Occupy movement, it was clearly Beijing’s way of pushing back. In 2015, Zhang Xiaoming, then director of the liaison office, caused quite the stir when he said that the chief executive of Hong Kong has a special legal status that transcends all three branches of government.

What is written on the wall is Beijing’s growing impatience not with the pro-democracy camp, but with the pro-establishment camp. The pan-democrats’ tactics lost their shock appeal years ago. Instead, the pro-establishment camp’s performance is the reason why Beijing has been making its presence felt and visibly exercising its authority in Hong Kong.