The number of pro-democracy lawmakers elected to Hong Kong’s Legislative Council who might lose their seats has grown to 10, after a court was asked to rule whether eight people did not make proper oaths of office.
Earlier, two legislators had infuriated the Chinese government when they inserted a derogatory term for China into their oaths, taken last month, and pledged loyalty to the “Hong Kong nation.”
The actions of the pair, Sixtus “Baggio” Leung (梁頌恆) and Yau Wai-ching (游蕙禎), prompted Beijing on Monday to announce new guidelines specifying that oaths must be made “sincerely and solemnly” and be read accurately, with no chance of retaking them.
Photo: Reuters
On Sunday, news of the impending ruling from Beijing set off large street protests in Hong Kong, ending with a clash between police and protesters.
After the ruling, hundreds of lawyers, concerned that the Chinese government was undermining the territory’s court system, marched through the city’s central business district on Tuesday. Even though Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, has considerable autonomy, China can issue interpretations of the territory’s mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, that must be taken into account by Hong Kong’s judges.
On Wednesday, according to filings made to the Hong Kong High Court, a member of a taxi drivers’ association applied for a judicial review concerning the Legislative Council’s decision to accept the oaths from six of the eight lawmakers, and to let the two others retake theirs after their first try was rejected.
In an interview with the local RTHK public broadcasting service, former Taxi Drivers’ and Operators’ Association chairman Robin Cheng Yuk-kai (鄭玉佳) showed his application for the review of the eight lawmakers.
It was not the first time Cheng had used the judicial process to help the interests of Beijing. In late 2014, his group successfully sued to have an injunction issued to clear portions of a major Hong Kong thoroughfare that was the scene of pro-democracy demonstrations.
“The variations in their oath mean one thing, that they did not sincerely take the oath,” Cheng said in the interview. “If they did not sincerely swear allegiance to the country and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, how are they qualified to become Hong Kong’s legislators?”
Applying for judicial review in Hong Kong is a two-step process. The court first has to give the applicant permission to go ahead with the case. Judges then determine whether the person asking for the review has “sufficient interest in the matter.”
It is unclear what interest Cheng has in the case, although the taxi drivers’ association is a corporate member of Hong Kong’s transport functional constituency, a system in which trade groups are given seats on the Legislative Council.
Among the eight lawmakers named in the suit are Lau Siu-lai (劉小麗), who read her oath slowly over more than 10 minutes, pausing after each word; Nathan Law (羅冠聰), who gave a preamble saying he could not be loyal to a government that “murders its own people”; and Leung Kwok-hung (梁國雄), also known as “Long Hair,” who unfurled a yellow umbrella, a symbol of the 2014 protests, when he gave his oath.
Hong Kong’s judicial system, inherited from the UK, is known for its independence. Judges must decide how to interpret the ruling from Beijing in each of the eight cases and determine whether the ruling, which came after the oaths had already been accepted, can be applied retroactively.
Yau and Leung had their oaths rejected and have not been given the opportunity to retake them.
“I don’t think I have broken any law,” Hong Kong legislator Eddie Chu Hoi-dick (朱凱迪) said on Thursday. “I do not think, even after the interpretation, the law of the court of Hong Kong will make such a ridiculous decision as to disqualify me and my fellow colleagues in the chamber.”
“This is political repression from Beijing to the whole society, not only to me,” Chu said.
China has strongly suggested that Monday’s ruling was aimed at more people than Leung and Yau.
On Wednesday, one Beijing official said as many as 15 lawmakers risked losing their seats over improper oaths, while another detailed what kind of oaths would be considered “insincere,” the South China Morning Post reported.
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