Relentless lawfare strategy makes way for social-economic agenda
March is an important time in the political calendar of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) when it tries to showcase that China is a democracy in action. The sitting of its legislative bodies—the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the National People’s Congress (NPC)—serve as an important pointer to the CCP’s priorities. During this year’s ‘Two Sessions’, the CCP’s ruling elite met amidst the din of conflict in Europe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has justified his use of hard power against Ukraine, a fellow Slavic nation, to deal with threats created by the West in territories that belonged to Russia historically. Putin is signalling that he is coming to grips with the problems left in the wake of the erstwhile Soviet Union’s demise. The collapse of fraternal regimes in Eurasia was a wake-up call for the CCP, and it probed into the reasons behind the unravelling to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
The CCP dismantled its command economy and invited foreign investment due to which the proportion of people living in poverty dropped after they migrated to cities, which became the centres for jobs in the industry sector.First, the centrally-planned economy was diagnosed to be the Soviet Union’s Achilles heel, therefore China instituted economic liberalisation. The CCP dismantled its command economy and invited foreign investment due to which the proportion of people living in poverty dropped after they migrated to cities, which became the centres for jobs in the industry sector. The CCP was clever in instituting political reform. While the West sees multi-party elections and civil liberties as the gold standard for a democracy, the CCP reckoned that it could harness the gains of democratisation by reforming its administrative mechanism, especially by bringing in accountability and term limits for cadres without ceding single-party control. Second, in its heyday the Soviet Union, the largest country, constituting nearly one-seventh of the Earth's land surface, and its 15 republics teeming with different ethnic groups and cultures. Internally in the Soviet Union, trouble began after satellite states began to drift away from Kremlin’s orbit. Nationalistic sentiments began to take root in distant Soviet Republics. This is similar to the current day situation in the People’s Republic, where 56 ethnic groups reside, and is the reason why China has expended its efforts to keep tabs on its periphery, especially Hong Kong. Thus, a proficient bureaucracy, a socio-economic agenda to widen prosperity has been the CCP’s mantra to hold on to power in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.
Beijing imposed the National Security Law, which proscribes acts that the CCP defines as secession, sabotage, terrorism, and complicity with foreign forces.In this regard, the issue of Hong Kong has once again featured in the deliberations of the CCP’s elite at the National People’s Congress. Following the city-state’s handover to China by the UK, its population of Chinese ethnicity has resisted Beijing’s writ on many issues. The CCP’s prognosis was that the disturbances were the West’s handiwork, and its approach to use lawfare in dealing with the recalcitrant territory’s population. Lawfare denotes the use of legal remedies and institutions to achieve a certain objective. In 2020, Beijing imposed the National Security Law, which proscribes acts that the CCP defines as secession, sabotage, terrorism, and complicity with foreign forces. Last year during the ‘two sessions’, Beijing made changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system to make sure that only “patriots” could enter public office. The changes have reduced the number of directly elected legislators to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council and instituted vetting mechanisms for candidates.
An incident where health workers took an 11-month-old from her parents and quarantined her in a hospital sparked off an uproar.Economic disparity was cited as one of the reasons for the protests in Hong Kong. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual report in 2021 on cost of living, which ranks cities, places Hong Kong at the fifth position, the special administrative region was at No. 1 slot in the publication’s 2020 study. Hong Kong’s rise as a financial hub and the consequent influx of expatriates have pushed up prices of basic necessities, which has become a burden for locals. The median price of an apartment is more than 20 times the annual median income of a household (see graphic).
Source: New York TimesThe views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
Kalpit A Mankikar is a Fellow with Strategic Studies programme and is based out of ORFs Delhi centre. His research focusses on China specifically looking ...
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