Patriotism: The halo for electoral candidates

With local elections looming just around the corner in September and December, preparations are now taking place for candidates to declare their loyalty to Hong Kong to pass the registrar’s test for eligibility.

The elections have been dubbed the “patriots only elections” which has been mocked by the western media as a dubious requirement to keep any opposition out of local politics.

Western media mock the “Patriots only” elections, suggesting that Beijing is controlling the local elections by opposing any potential candidate who is contrary to its liking.

But this was refuted in 2021 when then Chief Executive Carrie Lam said that as long as the candidates can show allegiance to Hong Kong, uphold the Basic Law and pass national security checks, they will be permitted to run for election.

"For people who hold different political beliefs, who are more inclined towards more democracy, or who are more conservative, who belong to the left or belong to the right, as long as they meet this very fundamental and basic requirement, I don't see why they could not run for election," she said.

Every country has patriots, particularly on local and federal governments. A recent YouGov survey on globalization and national sentiments on how people in 19 countries view their own nation, placed the USA top of the list.

But the survey is wrong. The USA is no longer a patriot state, but one of nationalism which implies a sense of superiority and prioritizes one’s nation above all others. It is at the top of a hierarchy of nations. According to various definitions, nationalism looks down on other nations, is often aggressive or exclusive and can cause division or conflict. Patriotism, on the other hand, respects other nations, is positive and inclusive and builds harmony.

By these definitions, Hong Kong/China is definitely patriotic.

In the west, patriotism is taken for granted; it has been around for hundreds of years and is firmly embedded in local folklore. But for Hong Kong it is something relatively new, making it vulnerable to the influence of foreign forces hellbent on breaking its successful one country two systems of administration.

Prior to the 2021 elections, the US propaganda agency National Endowment for Democracy (NED) was firmly entrenched in Hong Kong with the sole objective of destroying the unique administration system. It was seen as China’s tool to reunite with Taiwan; if it works in Hong Kong, it can work anywhere. But the US plan is to use Taiwan as a base for its military arsenal on the doorstep of the mainland, as it has done in Japan and the Philippines. In the eyes of the US, the one country, two systems principle cannot succeed.

The NED instilled distrust of the administration with the universities, legislators, trade unions, vulnerable school children, weak-kneed activists, the media and others, culminating in the bloody riots of 2019. Action was needed. A legal framework was established with the national security laws which gave the police power to arrest suspects on charges closely aligned to traitors. Numerous trials are continuing, while the government maintains its vigilance to ensure non-patriots don’t infiltrate the election committee or the legislature to disrupt the smooth running of Hong Kong.

With change came enlargement of the Election Committee (EC) and the Legislative Council. The EC, Hong Kong’s electoral college similar to the US’s which elects its president, was established under the Basic Law to elect the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. It grew from 800 members in 1998 to 1500 members today. [The US electoral college has only 500 members to elect its president]. Among its members are members of the district fight crime and district fire safety committees, the true patriots of Hong Kong who not only love their territory but are also prepared to service it in a voluntary position. Other members of the EC include architects and planners, Chinese medical practitioners, universities and schools, engineers in their various fields, medical and health specialists, social welfare, sports, performing arts and publications, technology and innovation, religious bodies etc.

Many will be returned uncontested in the September 7 elections because they have already been chosen by their respective bodies. However, 28 candidates will compete for 21 seats from 6 contested sub-sectors including commercial, architectural, technology, labour, the representatives of the area committees of the district fight crime and fire safety committees of Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories.

Then, at the end of the year, some 90 members will be voted in the Legislative Council Elections which will include 40 members from the election committee, 30 to be returned by functional constituencies and 20 by geographic constituencies. All are patriots who love Hong Kong for what it is, for what it has achieved, and with the full knowledge that together they made Hong Kong prosper to be the international city it is.

Mark Pinkstone

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

The US State Department’s so called 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which severely criticizes Hong Kong for its national security laws and detention of Jimmy Lai is seriously flawed.

In fact, it is hardly worth the paper it’s written on. But it did draw criticism from the Hong Kong SAR Government, and others, noting that “the US is once again overriding the rule of law with politics and politicising human rights issues. Such attempt to interfere in Hong Kong's law-based governance and undermine the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong is doomed to fail."

Specifically, the government responded to criticism of the Correctional Services Department and its treatment of Jimmy Lai currently facing treason-associated charges. The rights of [prisoners] are safeguarded through a system of regular visits by independent visitors, namely Justices of the Peace (JPs), who are vested with the statutory duties to inspect the prisons once or twice every month..."

The Chinese foreign ministry office in Hong Kong also expressed its “firm opposition” to the US report.

It said that the US was “rehashing” cases involving “anti-China, destabilising forces in Hong Kong” and openly supporting them. It urged the US to stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs and to respect China’s sovereignty and the city’s rule of law.

“This fully exposes the US’s politicisation and instrumentalisation of human rights issues, as well as its sinister attempt to use Hong Kong to contain China’s development — an act that is despicable,” the statement read.

The report is very different from last year’s document, issued under the Democratic administration of Joe Biden. Compared to previous editions, sections in respect for gay rights and analyses of gender-based violence have disappeared.

Under the current President Trump administration, for example, the report on Israel is much shorter than its 2023 Biden version, which ran for 103 pages. The new Trump report is just nine pages long.

There is no reference to the thousands of Palestinian deaths in Gaza, which the Hamas-run Ministry of Health estimates at over 61,000. There is also no mention of the desperate humanitarian situation or Israel’s restrictions on food supplies. The section on war crimes and genocide concludes with two lines: “Terrorist organizations Hamas and Hezbollah continue to engage in the indiscriminate targeting of Israeli civilians in violation of the law of armed conflict.” That’s it!

The reports started in the late ‘70s as a legal requirement of the US Congress which passed laws in 1961 requiring the State Department to report on human rights abroad as part of the Foreign Assistant Act. So, effectively the US is compelled to issue the report each year.

China, fed up with the US’s acrimonious ‘holier than thou attitude’ towards the world, hit back at the State Department’s country reports and produced its own Human Rights Record of the United States in 1998. Its latest report on 2023, published last year, targets gun violence in the US when 43,000 were killed, an average of 117 deaths per day. And police brutally persist with 1247 deaths attributed to police violence. It also noted that the US accounts for 25 per cent of the world’s prison population even though it has less than 5 per cent of the global population, earning the title of a “carceral state.”

Even some US politicians draw on the hypocrisy of the report. A new report by Democrat senator Jon Ossoff has catalogued hundreds of alleged human rights abuses in US immigration detention centres, including physical and sexual abuse, mistreatment of pregnant women, and inadequate medical care. The report said that it had received or identified 510 “credible reports” of human rights abuse against individuals held in immigration detention centres since 20 January 2025. These included reports of overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions, inadequate food and water, exposure to extreme temperatures, denial of access to attorneys, and family separations.

Another government that is a close ally of the Trump administration, El Salvador, has seen its ratings greatly improved, and the report’s dedicated space has been significantly reduced: comments take up 75 per cent less than in previous editions. Mentions of the country’s prison conditions, which Amnesty International had described as “inhumane,” and allegations of arbitrary arrests have disappeared.

Brazil, on the other hand, whose relationship with Washington has plummeted and on which the Trump administration has imposed new tariffs due to the house arrest of former president Jair Bolsonaro — a former international ally of Trump — is vilified in the report. The State Department attacks the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, arguing that the restrictions it imposes on access to internet content disproportionately harm the far-right leader’s supporters.