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The British newspaper “The Guardian” said Hong Kong and Chinese officials are facing new US sanctions, in the context of Beijing’s removal of 4 Democratic representatives.
And the Chinese intervention in the removal of 4 democratic legislators led the pro-democracy group in parliament to present a collective resignation in protest against this measure.
The Legislative Council met in Hong Kong on Thursday, in the absence of pro-democracy lawmakers, a day after their collective resignations that turned the region’s parliament into a meeting of pro-China deputies.
China has passed a measure to prevent someone from the Hong Kong Legislative Council from supporting the country’s independence, opposing the National Security Law and refusing to recognize Beijing’s sovereignty over Hong Kong.
China is campaigning to tighten its grip on the former British colony, which is supposed to enjoy semi-independence after a year of historic protests in the country.
Official Chinese statements said that Hong Kong should be “ruled by patriots.”
US national security adviser Robert O’Brien accused China of “flagrantly violating” its international obligations and threatened further sanctions against “those responsible for revoking Hong Kong’s freedom.”
He said: “The term one country, two systems has become a fig leaf covering the Chinese Communist Party, the one-party dictatorship in Hong Kong.”
US Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Democratic Senator Geoff Merkley, both members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said democracy is “gasping” in Hong Kong and “there will be consequences.”
“The unaccountable and unelected National Congress Standing Committee in China has taken another dangerous step to strip the people of Hong Kong of their sacred rights and freedoms,” they said in a statement.
“It is critical that the United States and all freedom allies come together to recognize and condemn the undeniable and far-reaching implications of this authoritarian takeover, which has erased what little remains of Hong Kong’s democratic political system and violates the obligations of treaty of China “.
Germany and Australia also condemned China’s move, and Australian Foreign Minister Maryse Payne called on the legislature “to play its role as the primary forum for popular political expression.”
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the removal of pro-democracy lawmakers represented a “new attack on the high degree of autonomy and freedoms in Hong Kong” according to the joint statement.
Since the start of the demonstrations last year, more than 10,000 people have been arrested, while the courts are overwhelmed by the enormous number of cases that must be resolved, most of them related to opposition deputies, as well as figures from the pro-democracy movement.
