(The original article in Japanese was posted on December 24, 2021)

On December 19, in Hong Kong, the first Legislative Council General Election was held under the new electoral system introduced in this May. The seats were dominated by pro-China members, and pro-democracy candidates lost all of their seats. In the first place, as “loyalty to the government” was a qualification requirement for candidacy under this new system, the results are not surprising. While the hopes of pro-democracy camp were hidden behind a record low voter turnout, the authorities confidently said, “Democratic systems come in many forms,” proudly emphasizing achievement in “restoration of order by patriots” and “stabilization of ‘one country, two systems.” After the election, the “Pillar of Shame,” a monument at the University of Hong Kong commemorating the victims of Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, was removed. Both in name and reality, Hong Kong has become one with China.

The day before the Hong Kong election, Taiwan held a referendum on important national policies. As a result, all of the proposals made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang/KMT), including restrictions on U.S. pork imports, were rejected. In response, President Tsai Ing-wen issued a statement saying, ”The people have chosen to work with the international community.” This means Taiwan supported the policies of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that seeks to strengthen relations with the U.S., rather than those of the KMT that is on the China side. While we are now witnessing the changes in Hong Kong, Taiwan’s presence is increasing. In October, European Parliament (EP) advised EU to strengthen its ties with Taiwan. Also in November, the US congresspersons visited Taiwan.

Needless to say, the aim is to put a check on China’s foreign strategy. In addition, I have a concern and cautiousness over the ongoing global “regression of democracy.” According to the V-Dem Institute (headquartered in Sweden), which analyzes democracy around the world by classifying forms of governance into four categories: liberal democracy, electoral democracy, electoral despotism, and complete despotism, the notable changes in the past decade have been a sharp decline in electoral democracy and an increase in electoral despotism. The percentage of the former of the world’s population has changed from around 35 to 39% to 19%, while that of the latter has changed from about 25% to 43%. In other words, despotism in the guise of democracy is expanding.

The problem is that the despotization progresses very naturally. The institute describes the typical process of turning into despotism as follows: after legally coming to power by an election, controlling the media and speech, dividing society, and eventually controlling the election itself, after legally coming to power in an election. Return of profits to the political power, falsification of official documents and statistics, fake news, anti-foreignism, expectations of authoritarian policies under the COVID-19 pandemic – Are there any signs of collapse somewhere on the side of democracy now? In order to consider how the post-COVID-19 society should be, we need to also carefully examine and review where we stand now.

This Week’s Focus, December 24, 2021

Takashi Mizukoshi, the President