HK affairs official: China not yielding on HK issue

China will not yield on the Hong Kong issue, Zhang Xiaoming, executive deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, said on Friday, saying the current main problem in Hong Kong is a political issue.

"It's not about whether the electoral system in Hong Kong is democratic or not, or the pace of its democracy as some people said," Zhang said in a news conference in Beijing.

"It's a contest between power seizures and countering power seizures, subversion and countering subversion, infiltration and reverse infiltration. On this issue, we have no room to back down," he said.

Zhang said the social unrest in recent years in Hong Kong fully proved that Hong Kong's electoral system has clear loopholes and defects, which allows anti-China and destabilizing forces to enter the government organs and other structures of governance and foreign interference in Hong Kong affairs.

"It has greatly endangered State security and must be solved from the system level," he said, adding that the decision to improve Hong Kong's electoral system adopted by China's top legislature is a fundamental measure to maintain political stability and security in Hong Kong.

The decision on improving the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's electoral system was passed by the 13th National People's Congress at the closing of its fourth session on Thursday.

"It will block the channel of anti-China and destabilizing forces to seize power within the system in Hong Kong," Zhang said.

The measure, together with the National Security Law for Hong Kong adopted in June last year, will effectively solve the ongoing chaos in Hong Kong and safeguard national security and the political stability and security of the SAR, he added.

Zhang said Hong Kong's democratic system has not been put into practice for a long time, and it needs to be constantly improved in practice, which is conducive to the gradual and steady development of Hong Kong's democratic system.

The focus of the improvement this time is to restructure and optimize Hong Kong's Election Committee that is broadly representative, granting it new functions, according to him.

In addition to its original responsibility for electing the chief executive, the Election Committee will also be allowed to elect part of the Legislative Council and participate in the nomination of all candidates for the Legislative Council members, he said.

"The main objective is to build a democratic system with Hong Kong's characteristics that suits the actual conditions of Hong Kong, and ensures the steady development of democracy in Hong Kong," he added.