Beijing Accuses Tai of Challenging the State

Candidates out campaigning before the primaries

After the overwhelming turnout for the primaries this past weekend, Beijing has issued its strongest condemnation yet, accusing Benny Tai Yiu-ting of "illegally manipulating" the city's electoral system, challenging the new security law, and acting as a political agent for foreign forces.

It's quite a mouthful to be accused of.

Tai says Beijing's accusations are "absurd"

The election is not until September, and the primaries was for the pan-democratic camp to figure out who they wanted to run on the ballot.

But Beijing was infuriated by this past weekend's primaries and put all the blame on Tai.

The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office issued a statement that said in part: "[We] strongly condemn the so-called 'primary election' organized by the opposition groups. The act is an unlawful manipulation of Hong Kong elections and a blatant challenge against the Basic Law and the national security law."

And the HKMAO pointed its finger directly at Tai: "Benny Tai was a key organizer of the 'unlawful' Occupy Central movement and an advocate of 'Hong Kong independence' and the scorched-earth mentality." the statement continued, accusing him of serving as a "political agent of foreign forces".

The statement also said the opposition's aim to have a majority in the Legislative Council amounts to overthrowing the government.

But that is not the intention of the pan-democrats. They want to hold the government accountable, and apparently Beijing considers that subversion.

Over 600,000 people participated in the primaries

Tai said the accusations were "nonsense, groundless and absurd". "It is absurd to allege this is subverting the state. Also, the allegation ignores the clear wording of the Basic Law," Tai said.

"I hope that the central government can see that 610,000 Hong Kong people have only used a peaceful and rational way to express their views through voting," he said. "If even they could be condemned as breaching the law, it will make governance even more difficult in the future and will provoke even more radical protests," he said.

Even those who did not do well in the primaries could still put their name on the ballot, he said, adding no one was being coerced.

The basic strategy is for the pan-democrats to try to win a majority in Legco so that they will have the upper hand in controlling the legislature. This could also force the chief executive to resign to resolve the deadlock and allow the public to vote again, as outlined in the Basic Law.

Cheung says democratic majority isn't subversion

University of Hong Kong principal law lecturer Eric Cheung Tat-ming said he could not see how lawmakers acting with a mandate and exercising their rights under the Basic Law could fall foul of the subversion offense under the national security law.

Also on Tuesday a spokesman for the Electoral Affairs Office said the primary was not part of the Legislative Council elections.

So now that it's settled that the primaries don't affect the upcoming election at all, perhaps the ball is back in Beijing's court?