Digital Representation in an Electoral Campaign Influenced by Mainland China: The 2017 Hong Kong Chief Executive Election

Abstract

Widely known by the public, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong is selected not by universal suffrage but by a 1,200-member Election Committee (EC). While candidates Carrie Lam, John Tsang, and Kwok-hing Woo all ran in the Chief Executive Election of 2017, only Lam received the blessing of authorities in the Mainland. Though Tsang had led the polls throughout the entire campaign and was popular on several social media platforms, a majority of EC members still cast their vote for Lam as Chief Executive. This was the first time that EC members voted against popular opinion in the Chief Executive Election. This paper analyzes the limited power of social media under elections that are under the influence of Mainland China. It also examines the problem of legitimacy in such electoral settings and the way in which authorities in the Mainland have influenced electoral outcomes through defects in the institutional systems of Hong Kong. The 2017 Chief Executive Election affirmed the tightened control of Mainland authorities over the affairs of Hong Kong.

Failure of the semi-authoritarian system: Losing ways of absorbing public voices into the post-handover Hong Kong government

“…Under the principle of ‘Hong Kong people administering Hong Kong’, the Chief Executive must be a Hong Kong local, and thus they cannot avoid establishing relationships across different sectors. Through the electoral system influenced by the Chinese authorities, only those pro-Beijing candidates have the chance to be elected as the Chief Executive, who must be seen as one of the members of the pro-Beijing camp (Chan and Sun, 2019). In this way, not only does the Chief Executive maintain a political stance, but they may also appoint political allies as members of important advisory bodies.…”

Fragmented Politics in Hong Kong—Analyzing the Pro-democracy Cohesion in the Legislative Council Before 2019

“…It, therefore, is just a platform to maintain mutual relationships and enhance understandings. 2 Moreover, the conference did not include all oppositional members in the council. In the previous terms, the League of Social Democrats and the People Power did not participate in the conference, since most pro-democracy members considered that the radical stances applied by these two parties were not in line with them.…”

“…The influence of the moderate democrats became weaker in recent years, leading to fewer rooms for making compromise with the administration on the paramount issues, especially for the political reforms. After the failure in 2015, the following Chief Executive election employed the original method to select the top leader [2]. While the Chinese authorities did not trust the pro-democracy camp, the radical groups aroused more supports from the Hong Kong people and eroded the vote bases from the DP and other moderate democrats.…”

El efecto del mercadeo en el ecosistema la importancia de la comunicación asertiva para alcanzar metas ambientales

“…Dentro del juego de intereses de los mercados y las estrategias financieras y comerciales, se puede llegar a presentar la situación en la que pesen más algunos intereses particulares o sectorizados, y como consecuencia de ello se emita un mensaje masivo de alto alcance y difusión que falte total o parcialmente a la verdad, en ese caso se estaría usando el poder del conocimiento mercadológico y comunicativo en contra de la verdad y favoreciendo intereses particulares, este hecho indeseable y antiético desde cualquier perspectiva, afectaría a toda la cadena en pleno, dependiendo de la difusión y aceptación del contenido por parte de los diferentes interlocutores (Chan, & Sun, 2019).…”