Newly elected Hong Kong lawmakers Yau Wai-ching (游蕙禎) and Sixtus “Baggio” Leung (梁頌恆), of the Youngspiration party, last month refused to pay allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime during their swearing-in ceremony in the Legislative Council. That prompted the Chinese National People’s Congress (NPC) to issue a legal interpretation in violation of both Chinese law and Hong Kong’s Basic Law.
Simply put, if a member of the Legislative Council does not show sufficient respect for and allegiance to the CCP regime, the party can deprive them of their qualifications and even prevent them from running for election.
NPC Standing Committee Chairman Zhang Dejiang (張德江), who proposed having the NPC issue an interpretation of the regulations on legislative oaths, does his alma mater — Kim Il-sung University — proud: He made sure to take a backward and unreasonable North Korean-style approach to creating laws.
Zhang’s use of a legal interpretation to suppress political dissent is a very North Korean approach. Pyongyang has been using torture, trumped-up charges and even exterminating the whole families of people who have criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, as well as targeting members of the elite who have tried to flee to South Korea.
If China, like North Korea, could ignore international law and does not need foreign direct investment, Yau and Leung would not have gotten off the hook so easily and simply lost their legislative seats: They would have been accused of having desecrated the Basic Law, sent to prison and perhaps even executed.
The only reason Hong Kong has not changed in this regard is because China still needs foreign capital and Hong Kong is still protected by the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.
Some might wonder whether the executions and killing off of whole families in North Korea have been enough to stop the North Korean elite from fleeing. The answer is a resounding “no.”
The same applies to the Islamic State group, which, despite the terror it inspires, continues to lose captured territory in Iraq and is now even beginning to lose ground in Syria.
The reason the idea of an independent Hong Kong has gained popularity and a firm foothold among young Hong Kongers is that China has again breached the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law, and tried to deprive Hong Kongers of their rights.
Even if Yau and Leung, or Edward Leung (梁天琦) of Hong Kong Indigenous, are never able to run in Legislative Council elections again, if they are driven into exile, or perhaps even killed, the call for Hong Kong independence would not go away until it becomes reality.
This will happen, just as certain as Taiwan’s independence movement took root, grew and won government power under the name Republic of China (ROC), despite suffering through the rule of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son, Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
The calls for Hong Kong independence will not disappear. On the contrary, as the people of Hong Kong have given up all their illusions about China, the independence movement will only continue to grow until the territory wins the power to decide its own future.
Martin Oei is a political commentator based in Hong Kong.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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