The CCP’s annual legislative theatre sends fresh signals of control over the city it promised autonomy
The Annual Ritual of Rubber-Stamp Politics
Every year, thousands of carefully selected delegates file into Beijing’s Great Hall of the People for China’s National People’s Congress, a legislative body that in any genuine democracy would hold independent power, debate real policy, and hold the government to account. In China, it does none of these things. The NPC is, by design and by party decree, a rubber-stamp body. Its votes are unanimous or near-unanimous. Its deliberations are scripted. Its outcomes are decided before delegates arrive. The fourth session of the 14th National People’s Congress, running from March 3 to March 11, 2026, was no different. But within its choreographed sessions, messages were sent that the world, and Hong Kong in particular, must not ignore.
Hong Kong in Beijing’s Five-Year Plan Machine
Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang attended separate group deliberations with deputies from both Hong Kong and Macau. His message to Hong Kong was framed in the language of opportunity and integration. He called for Hong Kong to align with China’s 15th Five-Year Plan and to deepen its role within the mainland’s development framework. He spoke of consolidating Hong Kong’s status as an international financial, shipping, and trade center, and of leveraging the city’s strengths in education, science, and technology. On the surface, these words sound positive. In context, they are alarming.
What Integration Actually Means
Every call for Hong Kong to “integrate” into China’s national development framework is a call for Hong Kong to become more like the mainland, not less. The promise of One Country, Two Systems, enshrined in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and supposed to last until 2047, has been systematically dismantled. The 2020 National Security Law converted political dissent into criminal activity. Scores of pro-democracy activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens have been imprisoned, exiled, or silenced. The city’s Legislative Council was restructured to ensure that only “patriots” approved by Beijing could hold seats. Free elections, once a cornerstone of Hong Kong’s identity, are now a memory. The Amnesty International Hong Kong report documents the continuing erosion of civil liberties and the prosecution of activists under the National Security Law. When Beijing tells Hong Kong to align with the Five-Year Plan, it is not inviting collaboration. It is issuing orders.
Taiwan and the Rhetoric of Inevitability
Wang Huning, one of the CCP’s most senior ideologues and a principal architect of Xi Jinping’s political philosophy, used the NPC sessions to meet with deputies from the Taiwan delegation and repeat Beijing’s standard talking points about “peaceful reunification” and opposition to Taiwan independence. The language is familiar. The intent is coercive. Wang’s framing of cross-strait relations as a matter of “national reunification” erases the democratic reality: Taiwan is a self-governing democracy of 23 million people who have never been ruled by the People’s Republic of China. Its people have repeatedly, in free elections, chosen leaders who defend their democratic sovereignty.
An Assembly With No Mandate
Critics of China’s system consistently point out that the NPC has no genuine democratic mandate. Delegates are selected through a process tightly controlled by the Communist Party. Independent candidates are systematically blocked. Those who attempt to organize genuine political campaigns outside party structures face harassment, arrest, and imprisonment. The Freedom House report on China rates the country as Not Free, with particular note given to the absence of genuine legislative accountability. What happened at the NPC’s 2026 session is not governance in any meaningful sense. It is performance, a carefully staged display of unity that serves the party’s domestic legitimacy needs while sending signals to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the world about Beijing’s intentions. Those signals should not be mistaken for reassurance. They are warnings dressed in formal language and broadcast on state television. The free world must read them clearly. Democracy movements across Asia, from Hong Kong’s exiled activists to Taiwan’s elected government, understand the stakes. The question is whether the international community will match that understanding with appropriate action. Explore Human Rights in China for deeper analysis of the NPC system and its impact on civil liberties.
Wing Sum
Arts, Culture & History Journalist, Apple Daily UK
Contact: wingsum@appledaily.uk
Wing Sum is an arts, culture, and history journalist with professional experience documenting cultural heritage, artistic expression, and historical memory within Chinese-speaking communities. She received her journalism education at a prestigious Chinese journalism school, where she specialized in cultural reporting, archival research, and ethical storytelling.
Her work at Apple Daily and other liberal Chinese magazines and newspapers includes coverage of literature, film, visual arts, and the preservation of collective memory. Wing Sum’s reporting is grounded in interviews with artists, historians, and cultural practitioners, supported by archival sources and scholarly research.
She brings newsroom experience in balancing cultural critique with factual accuracy and historical context. Editors value her careful sourcing and resistance to sensationalism when covering sensitive historical topics.
Wing Sum’s authority is reinforced by sustained publication within established media institutions and adherence to editorial standards governing accuracy and attribution. At Apple Daily UK, she contributes culturally rigorous journalism rooted in experience, research, and professional integrity.
