Killing two birds with one stone

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With the passage of the electoral reform on the HKSAR's elections in the National People Congress's standing committee meeting back a while ago, the whole electoral tradition and the political landscape in Hong Kong is going to change fundamentally, for good.

There are many ways to get the details of the Reform for people whom are really interested in it. In a nutshell, Beijing made many changes in the electoral system in the HKSAR to achieve the so-called Administering Hong Kong by Patriots by primarily screening out the candidates from the opposition camp through the reform on the nomination committee so that these candidates' nomination is a mission impossible in the first place. The aim is further secured by the newly formed candidates qualification censoring committee which members are the high officials in the HKSAR administration. Any opposition camp candidates who are so lucky to get enough nomination will then be kicked away by the Committee so they will never get an entrance ticket to run any elections, say for the District Councils or for the HKSAR Chief Exective. 

Local commentators mainly focus on the above affect on the opposition camp and perhaps it was so well camouflaged that Beijing's intention of killing two birds with one stone was concealed. Naturally sweeping the opposition from the institutional structure is one the of bird that Beijing is keen to kill, however, there is yet another one which Beijing wanted to get rid of all along, ie., the locally grown big masters namely the property developer tycoons. 

Among the changes on the constitution of the nomination committee, apart from the merger or even removal of the sectors which are opposition camp dominated, there is also shrinkage on the seats from the local business sector. Local business sector has been enjoying a big influence on the policies of the HKSAR's adminstration all along especially at the beginning of the reunion of Hong Kong to China. In their hey days, the big four local property developer families and with their backed Chief Executive, Donald Tsang, acted almost like the quasi CE in the HKSAR administration. It is also in Tsang's administration period basically there was no plan at all on the new land formation which in return led to the severe housing supply shortage in the following years to come. This problem became one of the deep-seated conflicts which the Hong Kong society as a whole is still facing as well as the huge profit for these property developer families. 

The situation did not go without Beijing's awareness but she relied on these big masters to help maintain Hong Kong's stability especially the economic stability which was mainly under the control of the Big Fours, let alone China's economic strength back 15 years ago was not as high as it is now. Everybody who knows the characteristic of the CCP knows that Deng Xiaoping, China's modern political architect, who has laid a national policy to hold the temper for the sake of economic development first. Beijing was just waiting for the right time when she is strong enough to stand on her feet and shake off the reliance on the Big Fours.

In fact Beijing's plan was not unnoticed, at least the Hong Kong's wealthiest person, nicked name Superman Li, did know what the game is all about. Li is known as the smartest businessman in Hong Kong and he is so knowledgeable and well known for his sharp vision over the global as well as local political and economic future developments. Li also knows the CCP's traditional characteristic of kicking away the used ladders as what they did to those partriotic capitalists after the founding of the new red China back 60 years ago. He has started the divesting from Hong Kong almost a decade ago and diversified an heavy investment in the U.K. instead. People might admire Li's foresight and insight when they see what happened on Alibaba in China now. See my earlier post Ant-man has been taken down

Under the CCP's ruling, any potential threat to its governing must be removed. It is only a matter of time if it has not happened yet.