Hong Kong: where East and West no longer meet

WHILE continuing to insist that Hong Kong is an internal Chinese affair in which foreigners should not interfere, the Chinese government is using the recent legislative elections in the former British colony to put it front and centre in Beijing's worsening relationship with the West.

Even before the US convened a summit for democracy on Dec 9-10, Beijing issued a white paper titled China: Democracy That Works extolling its own system and claiming that its Communist party had developed a "whole-process people's democracy", a term first used by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2019. The paper said China, which was not invited to the summit, did not duplicate Western models of democracy "but created its own".

The Hong Kong elections, held Dec 19, were condemned by the West, with the G-7, the European Union and the Five Eyes countries - the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - issuing statements that voiced "grave concern over the erosion of democratic elements". Held under a new, Beijing-designed system, all candidates were vetted to ensure that only those deemed to be "patriots" would be elected.