Candidates loyal to China’s Communist Party won a landslide victory in Hong Kong’s legislative elections
after pro-democracy activists were imprisoned and authorities received the power to exclude those deemed
inappropriate for office. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said during a news conference on December 20 that
she was “satisfied” with the election despite a 30.2 percent voter turnout -- the lowest since the British handed
Hong Kong over to China in 1997. She left to brief the Chinese leaders in Beijing and met Chinese President
Xi Jinping on December 22, who said that Hong Kong had consolidated the achievements in moving from
chaos to governance and the situation has constantly improved. He added that the region had also achieved
notable results in COVID-19 response, steadily recovered its economy and maintained social stability. Xi
Jinping then talked about Lam’s work towards the implementation of changes to HK’s electoral system,
holding of elections, implementation of NSL and HKSAR’s integration into the overall development of the
country and said that “the central authorities fully acknowledge the work of Lam and the HKSAR
government.” Senior Chinese officials including Han Zheng, Ding Xuexiang, Guo Shengkun, You Quan,
Wang Yi and Xia Baolong attended the meeting
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