Hong Kong’s Sham Elections Expose Beijing’s Tightening Grip

Hong Kong will hold elections for its Legislative Council on December 7, without a single pro-democracy candidate. The Chinese government’s attempts to present the legislature, known as the LegCo, as legitimate hardly fool anyone. Many Hongkongers quietly boycotted the previous election in 2021, resulting in record-low turnout. Five years into its sweeping crackdown, Beijing has seized full control of the LegCo. It revised laws to ensure that only Chinese Communist Party loyalists could run, cut directly elected seats from 35 to 20 out of 90, disqualified elected pro-democracy lawmakers, and imprisoned dozens of leaders of the city’s pro-democracy movement.