Qiao Xiaoyang (born 1945) is the former chairman of the Hong Kong SAR Basic Law Committee of the 11th National People's Congress.

Biography

Qiao was born in

Hubei province Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

in 1945. He was graduated from the

Beijing Language and Culture University } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

and joined the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

(CPC) in 1974. He served as vice-chairman of the legislative affairs commission of the

National People's Congress Standing Committee The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPCSC) is the permanent body of the National People's Congress (NPC) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which is the highest organ of state po ...

becoming 10th vice-chairman of the Law Committee in 2003. He was also member of the Hong Kong SAR Preparatory Committee and Macao SAR Preparatory Committee oversaw the transfer of the sovereignty of the two former colonies. He was appointed Chairman of the

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Basic Law Committee and

Macao Special Administrative Region Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a popu ...

Basic Law Committee of the 11th National People's Congress. He served as chairman of the HKSAR Basic Law Committee until 2013.

Chairman of HKSAR Basic Law Committee

He made a number of remarkable decisions and comments during his chairmanship of the HKSAR Basic Law Committee. In April 2010, Qiao said the reason the Standing Committee in 2007 ruled that Hong Kong "may" and not "must" have universal suffrage for the 2017 chief executive and 2020 Legislative Council elections was because any change in electoral methods required approval by local lawmakers. He added that passage of the reform package would "create excellent conditions for universal suffrage in the future."Lee, Colleen (15 April 2010
"Qiao adds clout to reforms"
, ''The Standard'' Instead of equal and universal right to vote, in June 2010 he further defined

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stanc ...

with the restriction of taking into consideration Hong Kong’s legal status (as a non-independent state), being compatible with the executive-led political system, balancing the interests of different sectors of society, and being beneficial for the development of the city’s capitalist economy. Pan-democrats said Qiao's statement reinforced their concerns, as it offered only the right to vote rather than to stand and nominate others in an election, and paved the way for keeping functional constituencies indefinitely. On 24 March 2013, he stated that Chief Executive "candidates must be persons who love the country and love Hong Kong". He admitted that it would be difficult to define, but implied that the

pan-democrats The pro-democracy camp, also known as the pan-democracy camp, is a political alignment in Hong Kong that supports increased democracy, namely the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council as given by the Basic L ...

were unpatriotic, he said: "As long as they insist on confronting the central government, they cannot become the chief executive." He also mentioned in his speech that “the nominating committee is in fact an organisation. The nomination of CE candidates by the nominating committee is a form of organisational nomination, which could effectively screen out pro-democracy candidates when

pro-Beijing camp The pro-Beijing camp, pro-establishment camp, pro-government camp or pro-China camp refers to a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Beijing central government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) t ...

have the majority in the nominating committee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Qiao, Xiaoyang 1945 births Living people Chinese Communist Party politicians from Hubei Members of the Preparatory Committee for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region People's Republic of China politicians from Hubei Politicians from Huangshi