Henry Tang: Beijing wants bigger, ‘diverse’ Legco

A delegate to Beijing’s top political advisory body confirmed on Saturday that the central government is indeed mulling boosting the size of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and the committee that picks the chief executive.

Henry Tang, who is in Beijing for the annual Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference session, was speaking after attending a two-hour meeting with Vice-Premier Han Zheng, who is in charge of Hong Kong affairs.

“He elaborated and articulated the necessity of implementing the patriots rule Hong Kong this principle and the necessity to reform the electoral system,” Tang said, while adding that Han did not reveal many details on the looming changes.

“He only said the election committee and Legco will be expanded, and with more members, he stressed that the representative system will be better,” Tang added.

Tang dismissed criticism that the reforms, which are expected to give the committee the power to nominate Legco candidates, will eliminate opposition voices.

“[Han] said the system reform is not aimed at purposely removing someone,” he explained. “I sincerely hope and I believe we will see that we will maintain a diverse view in the Legislative Council.

“Diverse views are welcomed, because otherwise it’s not healthy, that an organisation does not have any diverse views.”

Another CPPCC member, Lam Tai-fai, quoted Han as saying that he cared about Hong Kong at all times and that his desk has the SAR’s newspaper clippings daily.

Han also urged Hong Kong delegates to help speed up the development of the Greater Bay Area and encourage young people to dedicate themselves to “the cause of rejuvenating the nation”, according to Lam.

The justice secretary, Teresa Cheng, pledged in a blog post that she will take the lead in completing the legislative amendments to help implement Beijing electoral changes for Hong Kong as soon as possible.

“Governance power should be in the hands of patriots anywhere in the world. Patriot administration is therefore a basic requirement,” she wrote.