It adds to a crackdown against a protest movement in Hong Kong calling for greater democracy. Hong Kong news reports said earlier the committee will pick one-third of the members of the Legislative Council, or LegCo. AdBeijing wants to see “patriots ruling Hong Kong,” the premier said. “The Hong Kong people will be disenfranchised” under the latest changes, said Emily Lau, a former Hong Kong legislator. ___AP writers Zen Soo in Hong Kong and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam listens to reporters' questions during a press conference in Hong Kong, Monday, March, 2021. Lam said Monday that the Hong Kong government "fully welcomes" the reforms to the city's electoral system, after Beijing proposed a major revamp that will increase central government control over Hong Kong politics. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)HONG KONG – Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam on Monday said the city's government “fully welcomes” changes to the city’s electoral system that will substantially increase central government control over Hong Kong politics and exclude critics of Beijing. The planned electoral changes have drawn criticism in Hong Kong and abroad, including from the United States. Universal suffrage would give Hong Kong voters the right to vote for the city’s leader, although only candidates approved by Beijing would be allowed to run.

From left, Director of the Liaison Office and National Security Adviser to the Committee for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong Luo Huining, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, former Hong Kong Chief Executives Tung Chee-hwa and Leung Chun-ying and head of the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong Zheng Yanxiong attend an opening ceremony for the China's new Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong, Wednesday, July 8, 2020. China's new national security office in Hong Kong got off to an early start on Wednesday with an official opening amidst heavy police presence. (Hong Kong Government Information Services via AP)HONG KONG Beijings national security office was inaugurated in Hong Kong on Wednesday, just over a week after China's central government imposed a tough new law on the city that critics view as a further deterioration of freedoms promised to the former British colony. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam together with predecessors Leung Chun-ying and Tung Chee-hwa marked the opening of the Office for Safeguarding National Security in Hong Kong. The new office was established after Beijing imposed a national security law in Hong Kong that took effect on June 30.