Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers surrender their resignations

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers began resigning in protest on Thursday (local time), a day after the government expelled four members from their side.

The remaining 15 members of the bloc have said they will resign en masse in a show of solidarity after China’s central government in Beijing passed a resolution this week that led to the disqualification of the four lawmakers.

Most of the 15 did not attend a regular session of the legislature on Thursday and some delivered resignation letters to the Legislative Council secretariat.

China harshly criticized the move. His Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office called the mass resignation “an open challenge” against the authority of the central government and the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s constitution.

“If these lawmakers hope to use their resignation to provoke opposition and plead for foreign interference, they have miscalculated,” he said in a statement.

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Wu Chi-wai, the head of the pro-democracy bloc, said the Chinese and Hong Kong governments were trying to eliminate the separation of powers in the city, as the removal of the four lawmakers bypassed the courts.

“We lost our power to check and balance, and all constitutional power in Hong Kong is in the hands of the chief executive,” Wu said.

He said it was the end of the city’s “one country, two systems” framework under which Hong Kong has enjoyed autonomy and freedoms not found on the mainland since the former British colony’s return to China in 1997.

Claudia Mo, a pro-democracy lawmaker who also resigned, added: “We are resigning from the legislature only at this time. We are not going to abandon the fight for democracy in Hong Kong.”

Hours earlier, one of the pro-democracy lawmakers, Lam Cheuk-ting, unfurled a banner from a balcony inside the Legislative Council building saying that the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, had brought disaster to Hong Kong and its people, and that their infamy would last. ten thousand years.

The massive exit will leave the Hong Kong legislature with just 43 lawmakers, 41 of whom are from the pro-Beijing bloc. This means that the legislature could pass bills favored by Beijing with little opposition.

Lawmakers announced their decision to resign hours after the Hong Kong government said it was disqualifying all four lawmakers: Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung.

All four had urged foreign governments to sanction China and Hong Kong while China cracked down on dissent in the semi-autonomous Chinese city. Beijing accused them of violating their oaths in office.

A resolution passed this week by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China said any lawmaker who supports Hong Kong’s independence, refuses to recognize China’s sovereignty over the city, threatens national security, or calls on outside forces to interfering in city affairs should be disqualified. .

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reiterated on Thursday Beijing’s support for the Hong Kong government to “carry out its duty in accordance with the decision of the NPC Standing Committee.”

“No country will turn a blind eye to acts of treason against the country by public officials, including members of the Legislative Council, who break their oaths of office,” Wang said at a daily press conference.

Britain, the United States and Australia have denounced the measure.

Britain summoned China’s ambassador to London to register “deep concern over this latest action by his government,” Foreign Minister Nigel Adams told lawmakers on Thursday.

Adams said it was “another sad day for the people of Hong Kong” and that the British government has declared it the third breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the cession of territory since it came into force in 1997 and the second time in the last six months.

He said China’s actions are “designed to harass and stifle all voices critical of China’s policies.”

The people of Hong Kong, he added, now have a “neutralized legislature.”

US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien said the Communist Party of China has violated its international commitment to the people of Hong Kong.

“‘One country, two systems’ is now simply a fig leaf covering the expansion of the CCP’s one-party dictatorship in Hong Kong,” he said.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said in a statement that the disqualification of the four lawmakers “seriously undermined” Hong Kong’s democratic processes and institutions.

In recent months, Beijing has increasingly cracked down on Hong Kong, even though when it took control in 1997 it promised to leave the territory’s most open legal and economic systems intact for 50 years until 2047.

Beijing imposed a national security law in June that some have called draconian after anti-government protests rocked the city for months last year, and has used it to stifle opposition voices.

In response, the United States imposed sanctions on several officials, including Lam. Several Western countries have suspended their extradition treaties with the territory, and Australia and Britain have offered Hong Kongers easier ways to settle in those countries.

Earlier this year, the four lawmakers were barred from seeking re-election in a vote originally scheduled for September.

The government finally postponed the elections scheduled for September for a year, citing the coronavirus. The pro-democracy camp criticized the move as an attempt to prevent them from winning the majority of seats in the legislature, which was a possibility in the elections.