China's top legislature on Tuesday voted unanimously to adopt the amended Annex I and Annex II to the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The two annexes concern the method for the selection of the HKSAR Chief Executive and the method for the formation of the HKSAR Legislative Council and its voting procedures, respectively.
The amendments were passed at the closing meeting of the 27th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress.
President Xi Jinping signed presidential orders to promulgate the amended annexes.
Li Zhanshu, chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, presided over the meeting, which was attended by 167 members of the NPC Standing Committee.
The meeting also passed bills related to personnel appointment and removal.
Li also presided over two meetings of the Council of Chairpersons of the NPC Standing Committee before the closing meeting.
The amendments to the two annexes to the HKSAR Basic Law came after the NPC adopted a decision at its annual session on March 11 to improve Hong Kong's electoral system. The amendments were part of the provisions of the decision. Reform of the electoral system clarified by the decision also includes greater powers being given to Hong Kong's Election Committee in nominating candidates for chief executive and the Legislative Council, as well as an increase in the number of Election Committee members from 1,200 to 1,500 from five sectors.
NPC Standing Committee Vice-Chairman Wang Chen said while explaining the decision during the annual session of the NPC on March 5 that the reform is to deal with the loopholes and deficiencies in Hong Kong's current electoral system and to ensure the city is administered by patriots.
At a news conference on March 12 following the passage of the decision, Zhang Xiaoming, deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, said the improvements to the electoral system are urgently required because the rioting and turbulence that occurred in Hong Kong in recent years showed that many anti-China disruptive forces have managed to enter the local government structure as a result of electoral deficiencies.
Therefore, he said, improving the electoral system provides an institutional guarantee for implementing the principle of "patriots administering Hong Kong", which is conducive to the sound and sustained implementation of "one country, two systems" in the Hong Kong SAR.
