Pro-democracy lawmakers shake hands at the start of a press conference as an officer of the Legislative Council
Hong Kong, China:
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers said on Wednesday they would all resign, after China gave the city the power to disqualify politicians considered a threat to national security and four of their colleagues were ousted.
The resignations are the latest blow to the city’s besieged pro-democracy movement, which has come under sustained attack since China imposed a sweeping national security law, including arrests for media posts. social workers and activists fleeing abroad.
“We in the pro-democracy camp will stand alongside our colleagues. We will resign en masse,” Wu Chi-wai, organizer of the remaining 15 pro-democracy lawmakers, said at a press conference.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Hong Kong government ousted four pro-democracy members minutes after one of China’s top legislative committees ruled that authorities in the semi-autonomous city could remove any lawmaker deemed a threat to the national security without going through the courts.
Hong Kong’s leader is chosen by pro-Beijing committees, but half of the 70 seats in his legislature are directly elected, giving the city’s 7.5 million residents a rare chance to have their voices heard at the polls.
The massive resignation will leave the legislature made up almost entirely of those who follow the Beijing line.
The inability of Hong Kong people to elect their leaders and all their lawmakers has been at the heart of the growing opposition to the Beijing regime that sparked months of huge and often violent protests last year.
China passed the Security Law in June to quell protests, describing it as a “sword” hanging over the heads of critics.
“My honor”
“If due process, the protection of systems and functions and the fight for democracy and human rights lead to disqualification, that would be my honor,” said Dennis Kwok, one of the four. ousted, after his dismissal on Wednesday.
The quartet were initially banned from running in the city’s parliamentary elections – which were due to be held on September 6 – after calling on the United States to impose sanctions on Hong Kong officials.
These elections have been postponed, with authorities blaming the coronavirus.
Hong Kong pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam said the disqualifications were “constitutional, legal, reasonable and necessary.”
More than 10,000 people have been arrested during pro-democracy protests, and the courts are now filled with trials – many involving opposition lawmakers and prominent activists.
Critics say the law’s broadly worded provisions are a hammer blow to the faltering freedoms China promised Hong Kong to uphold after British colonial rule ended in 1997.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
