A chorus of attacks from both Hong Kong conservative officials and mainland sources highlight Beijing's worries over the Legislative Council elections to be held in September 2004. The Central Government are claimed to fear that an electoral result favouring pro-democratic legislators could lead to a deterioration of Hong Kong-Beijing relations or to the collapse of the SAR government .

Speaking on a radio programme on March 1, Executive Councillor Cheng Yiu-tong claimed that the July 1 march and the subsequent shelving of the national security bill had caused Beijing to worry that people who might seek to harm the central government and the nation might be elected to the legislature. He argued that the election of pro-democratic candidates would harm relations with the mainland, both politically and economically, and that this would be something that would have to be taken into account when Hong Kong goes to the polls for the election of LegCo in September.

"What will Hong Kong become in the future? Will it become an independent political entity to confront Beijing? It's a question which the central government is very worried about. People could decide at the ballot box if they wanted harmonious or confrontational relations with Beijing."

Cheng also warned that local economic development would suffer as a result of deteriorating cross-border relations. "Hong Kong is gearing up to be a yuan offshore center, which will be good to the local economic development. Right now the relationship between Hong Kong and the mainland is not so strained. But what happens in the future, I can't say for sure."

This statement come after reports from Xinhua and the China Daily warn against universal suffrage for Hong Kong. On 29 February Xinhua carried an article by Basic Law drafter Xu Chongde, attacking democrats for "anti-central government attitudes" and quoting comments by Deng Xiaoping which condemned universal suffrage for Hong Kong. An editorial in the official China Daily on March 1 warned that if pro-democratic legislators take a majority of seats in LegCo, Hong Kong's executive-led government could collapse.