Hong Kong: China limits parliament to ‘patriots’ – BBC News

The number of directly elected seats in parliament has been cut almost by half, and prospective MPs will first be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee to ensure their loyalty to the mainland.

The aim is to ensure only “patriotic” figures can run for positions of power.

Critics warn it will mean the end of democracy, fearing it will remove all opposition from the city parliament.

But Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, said there is not a “one-size-fits-all” way of doing democracy, adding the vetting committee will not screen people out based on their political views, but rather weed out any “non-patriots”.

via www.bbc.com

Those darn Chinese Communist Party apparatchiks. Always crushing democracy somewhere.

An old joke: Who invented communism, scientists or politicians?

Answer: Politicians. If scientists had invented it, they would have tried it on dogs first.