Leading activist Joshua Wong and 11 other opposition figures were unable to participate in Hong Kong’s upcoming legislative elections, a move they denounced as the latest assault on China’s critics of the semi-autonomous city.
The Hong Kong government, in a statement Thursday, said electoral authorities had disqualified the 12 nominees for failing to demonstrate their intention to support and promote the territory’s mini constitution or Basic Law.
Advocating for independence, requesting the intervention of foreign governments, or “voicing an objection in principle” to a national security law China imposed on Hong Kong earlier this month are behaviors that “could not really” defend the Basic Law, according to the statement.
He added that the Hong Kong government supported and agreed with the decision, warning that more nominees could face a similar fate in the short term.
Wong confirmed his disqualification in a Twitter post, saying he could not describe the new national security law as “draconian.”
3. Despite the fact that more than 610,000 #Hongkongers voted in the # HK primaries, #Beijing now staged the biggest crackdowns on the city’s elections, disqualifying almost all pro-democracy runners, from young progressive groups to traditional moderate parties. pic.twitter.com/fW5yq1lHON
– Joshua Wong 黃 之 鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) July 30, 2020
The ban on opposition candidates amounted to China’s “biggest crackdown” in an election in Hong Kong, he said, adding that the move targeted “young progressive groups to traditional moderate parties.”
He added that “clearly, Beijing shows complete disregard for the will” of the people in Hong Kong, “trampling on the last pillar of the city’s disappearing autonomy” and trying to keep the city’s legislature “under its firm control.” .
‘Without political censorship’
The South China Morning Post (SCMP), a Hong Kong-based news publication, said that Gwyneth Kwai-lam Ho, another prominent activist, was also disqualified for opposing national security law in a statement on July 25.
Ho was told that “such an unequivocal expression” against the national security law “casts serious doubt on whether the candidate adopts, promotes and supports the fundamental principle of ‘one country, two systems’ and, therefore, objectively has the genuine and true intention to maintain the Basic Law at the time of the nomination “, according to SCMP.
China introduced the new legislation in Hong Kong on June 30, seeking to punish what it called secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. The law, which bypassed the Hong Kong legislature, followed months of pro-democracy protests last year that sometimes turned into violence.
Critics of the law describe it as an assault on Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms, secured under the “one country, two systems” framework established when the United Kingdom returned the city to Chinese rule in 1997. But supporters say it will. bring stability after a year of unrest against China.
Others disqualified included four opposition lawmakers, Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung, SCMP reported.
The government statement said other inappropriate behavior that could disqualify the nominees included intentions to reject the government’s proposals “indiscriminately” to force it to agree to other political demands and a refusal to recognize China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong.
But “it was not about political censorship, restriction of freedom of expression or deprivation of the right to stand for election as some members of the community allege,” he said.
‘White Terror’
The disqualifications mark a major setback for pro-democracy activists, who hoped to win the first majority in the Hong Kong Legislative Council, known as LegCo. It came hours after four students, ages 16-21, were arrested for posts on social media believed to be in violation of the new security law.
The four were all former members of Student Localism, an independence group that announced it would dissolve its Hong Kong branch the day before the security law was enacted.
Police said they were arrested on suspicion of organizing and inciting secession through comments made in social media posts after the law went into effect.
Student and human rights groups condemned the arrests, saying they announced the pervasive type of political repression on the Chinese mainland.
“Hong Kong has fallen into the era of white terror,” higher-education student unions, representing 13 student unions, said in a statement overnight, referring to a Chinese language to describe political persecution.
“It is clear that more and more Hong Kong people [will] has to endure … communist terror, “he added.
At least 15 people have been arrested under the new law.
Nathan Law, a democracy activist who went into exile after the law was imposed, expressed similar sentiments on Twitter.
“White terror, the politics of fear has spread in Hong Kong,” he said, describing the electoral disqualifications as an attempt to bring China’s parliamentary system to Hong Kong.
“The strategy of the Chinese Communist Party apparently aims to suppress all forms of resistance in Hong Kong with great fear and intimidation,” he wrote.
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