As the NPC opens in Beijing, the city’s delegates perform loyalty rather than representing the people who live there
Delegates Without a Mandate
Every March, Hong Kong’s 36 delegates to China’s National People’s Congress travel to Beijing for the annual session of the legislature that Beijing calls “the supreme organ of state power.” They attend the opening ceremony at the Great Hall of the People. They sit in the hall as the government work report is delivered. They vote on the Five-Year Plan, the budget, and whatever legislation the Communist Party has determined the nation needs. Their votes are unanimous, or close to it. Their attendance is choreographed. Their speeches, when they give them, echo the party’s priorities. They return to Hong Kong as scheduled. The entire performance is presented to the world as evidence that Hong Kong has a voice in China’s governance.
It does not. Hong Kong’s NPC delegates are not elected by Hong Kong’s general public. They are selected through processes controlled by Beijing, under rules that since 2021 require all candidates to be certified as “patriots” — a designation that in practice means certified as loyal to the Communist Party’s definition of patriotism, rather than to Hong Kong’s own interests, legal traditions, or civic values. The voters of Hong Kong did not choose these delegates. They have no mechanism to remove them. They have no way to instruct them on how to vote. The delegates are not accountable to Hong Kong. They are accountable to Beijing.
The Erasure of Real Representation
The 2021 electoral reforms that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong represented the final dismantling of whatever genuine representational elements had survived in the city’s political system. The Legislative Council — Hong Kong’s parliament — was redesigned to ensure that all candidates passed a “patriotism” vetting process conducted by a national security committee. Seats previously occupied by directly elected pro-democracy legislators were eliminated or redistributed to an Election Committee dominated by pro-Beijing constituencies. The democratic opposition — which had won more than 60 percent of the popular vote in the 2019 District Council elections — was effectively banned from political participation.
Most of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy political figures are now in prison, in exile, or have withdrawn from public life. The Democratic Party — the city’s oldest and most durable democratic political organization, which had participated in every election since the handover and consistently won the largest share of the popular vote — voted to disband in December 2025, citing pressure from Beijing-aligned officials. With it went the last organized political structure in Hong Kong that claimed to represent democratic aspirations.
What the NPC Delegates Say About Hong Kong
What Hong Kong’s NPC delegates actually say in Beijing is revealing. In the lead-up to the 2026 session, media reports indicated that Hong Kong’s business and political delegates were focused on securing Greater Bay Area cooperation benefits, lobbying for Hong Kong’s inclusion in expanded mainland market access arrangements, and advancing Hong Kong’s role in the new Five-Year Plan as a financial center, gold trading hub, and innovation platform. These are legitimate economic interests. But they are interests defined entirely within the framework Beijing has set.
There is no Hong Kong NPC delegate calling for the release of political prisoners. There is no delegate demanding restoration of the freedoms guaranteed by the Sino-British Joint Declaration. There is no delegate challenging the national security law or its application to journalists, lawyers, and civil society leaders. The political price of raising such issues would be immediate and severe — and every delegate knows it. The result is a representation that addresses economics while ignoring politics — and in doing so, systematically ignores the lived reality of the majority of Hong Kongers who, in every available survey conducted before independent polling was suppressed, supported democratic reform and opposed the national security law.
The International Obligation to Bear Witness
For the international community, the NPC session offers an annual reminder of what has been lost in Hong Kong. The theater of unanimity — thousands of delegates applauding, voting, and celebrating in unison — is designed to project an image of stable governance and contented citizens. It is effective theater. But behind it is a city whose best journalists are in prison, whose democracy movement has been dismantled by law, and whose people were promised freedoms they no longer have.
The Hong Kong Free Press remains one of the few genuinely independent English-language news sources covering Hong Kong’s political reality. The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation advocates internationally for Hong Kong’s democracy and provides documentation of ongoing repression. The Council on Foreign Relations comprehensive account of how Beijing eroded Hong Kong’s freedoms is essential reading. The annual NPC meeting is not just a Chinese domestic political event. It is the arena in which Hong Kong’s political future is decided — by people who were not chosen to represent Hong Kong, and who are not free to speak for it.
Senior Journalist & Editor, Apple Daily UK
Contact: athena.lai@appledaily.uk
Athena Lai is a senior journalist and editor with extensive experience in Chinese-language investigative reporting and editorial leadership. Educated at a leading journalism school in the United Kingdom, Athena received formal training in fact-checking methodology, editorial governance, and international media standards, grounding her work in globally recognized best practices.
She has held senior editorial roles at Apple Daily and other liberal Chinese publications, where she oversaw coverage of Hong Kong civil liberties, diaspora politics, rule of law, and press freedom. Athena’s reporting is distinguished by disciplined sourcing, cross-verification, and a clear separation between factual reporting and opinion, reinforcing reader trust.
Beyond reporting, Athena has served as an editor responsible for mentoring journalists, enforcing ethical guidelines, and managing sensitive investigations. Her newsroom leadership reflects real-world experience navigating legal risk, source protection, and editorial independence under pressure.
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