Lawyers and politicians in Hong Kong are bracing for a broader crackdown after China’s move to effectively ban two independence-minded lawmakers, fears reinforced by senior Chinese parliamentarian Li Fei (李飛), who insisted on Beijing’s duty to assert its authority.
Before the intervention on Monday by China’s parliament, a Hong Kong court was already considering whether to bar newly elected lawmakers Sixtus “Baggio” Leung (梁頌恆) and Yau Wai-ching (游蕙禎), whose swearing-in ceremony was stopped after they spoke the oath in a way regarded as insulting to China.
Li’s justification of Beijing’s move to interpret Hong Kong’s Basic Law has raised fears of further action by both the territory’s own government and the Chinese Communist Party leadership to destroy the fledgling independence movement in the former British colony.
Photo: EPA
Li on Monday said that Beijing would not “interfere” in the autonomy guaranteed under the Basic Law and the “one country, two systems” model, but he did not rule out legal action.
“Some people say the parliament should restrain itself and should not exercise its authority to the utmost,” said Li, who heads the Basic Law committee of China’s National People’s Congress. “We say we must exercise our authority. It is our duty.”
Leung and Yau were among a group of six lawmakers advocating various forms of Hong Kong autonomy, which China sees as a threat to national security.
Localists secured one in five votes in legislative elections in September — figures that shocked the Chinese and Hong Kong governments alike.
Hong Kong’s jealously guarded legal independence and freedom of speech could also be casualties of any broader campaign against the movement.
“I really do fear we are seeing the start of an era of the rule of Hong Kong by decree from Beijing,” said Alan Leong (梁家傑), a prominent barrister and former Hong Kong democratic legislator, citing Li’s remarks.
“What will be next under the Basic Law to be challenged?” Leong asked. “I really feel we are now trying to hold on to words written on water.”
While Beijing has invoked its right to intervene via the Basic Law four times since the handover from Britain in 1997, this is the first time it has pre-empted local court action over local laws.
That precedent appears to have emboldened pro-Beijing lawmakers to demand that others be barred from Hong Kong’s legislature.
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