Beijing urges Hongkongers to stay vigilant against bids to foil Legco election

Beijing has called for vigilance against any attempts to jeopardise Hong Kong’s coming Legislative Council election, warning that local law enforcement agencies will not “sit back and do nothing” in the face of such efforts.

The central government’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office posted the strongly worded commentary under the pen name “Gang Ao Ping” in the early hours of Friday, coinciding with the start of the two-week nomination period for the December 7 race.

The article urged the public to remain vigilant against any attempts by anti-China forces to disrupt the city’s election, even though the implementation of the national security law in 2020 and Beijing’s “patriots-only” electoral overhaul the following year had curbed such activities and maintained order.

“The recent outlandish theories, such as the fabricated claims of ‘Beijing is interfering in the election’, the circulation of a so-called ‘blessing list’, the smears against the performance of seventh-term lawmakers and vows to boycott the race, are similar to previous tactics,” it said.

“Their fundamental goal is to deny the new electoral system, challenge Beijing’s comprehensive jurisdiction [over Hong Kong] and attack the governing authority of the local government in a bid to destroy the city’s stability and drag it into political chaos again.”

The commentary stressed that the city’s law enforcement and judiciary agencies would not “sit back and do nothing”.