China’s top legislature is expected to deliberate and pass motions on overhauling Hong Kong electoral system next Monday and Tuesday, by amending the related annexes in the city’s mini-constitution.

The proposed agenda of the session includes reviewing draft amendments to Annex I and Annex II to the Basic Law, said Zang Tiewei, spokesperson for the Legislative Affairs Commission of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee.

The two annexes refer to the method of selecting the city’s chief executive, and forming the Legislative Council. The standing committee will also confirm establishing a vetting committee to filter candidates’ qualification in future legislative elections.

Next week’s standing committee meeting is “of great significance” to implement the spirit of the annual National People’s Congress plenary session that concluded earlier this month, Zang said.

The goal of the expected electoral shake-up is to maintain the constitutional order of Hong Kong as stipulated by the Chinese constitution and the Basic Law, and to cultivate a “democratic political system suited to Hong Kong’s realities,” he said.

Beijing has recently demanded Hong Kong be administered by patriots, targeting the landslide victory won by the city’s pro-democracy bloc — which Beijing officials and local pro-Beijing papers described as “anti-China elements” — in the neighborhood-level District Council election in 2019.

After the standing committee completes amendments to Annexes I and II, Hong Kong’s Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau will propose relevant measures to the electoral shake-up, the city’s justice secretary Teresa Cheng told state-owned newspaper Wen Wei Po in an interview published on Monday.

The Department of Justice will draft relevant amendments and invite lawyers familiar with the electoral system to provide legal advice, Cheng said, adding that she will also coordinate and participate in related work.

The head of the Hong Kong Department of Justice said that her officers should “do the right thing, do what they should do,” apart from being patriotic to the central authorities in Beijing.

She also clarified in the interview that raising different opinions at the LegCo did not necessarily mean that they are anti-China elements, and that pro-democracy activists could still participate in local politics if they “love the country and love Hong Kong” and embrace the Basic Law.

“It is unless the ‘democracy’ they refer to means anti-China and to provoke chaos in Hong Kong,” she added, however.

Her claims have echoed Beijing’s recent demand of “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” which many critics have interpreted as only those loyal to Beijing are allowed to serve in public office.

Meanwhile, Cheng also criticized the United States government for its “double standards and political tactics” in imposing sanctions on the central government and Hong Kong government officials, saying the imposition was “very unfair, illegal and unreasonable.”

“No democratic electoral system can meet everybody’s requirements, even the electoral systems in Britain and in the U.S. are different,” she said.

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