Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp is seeking to regain lost turf in crucial legislative by-elections tomorrow that it hopes will draw protest votes against perceived political screening and creeping control from Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rulers in Beijing.
The opposition in the former British colony has lost the power to block most bills in the Legislative Council since six lawmakers, elected by more than 180,000 votes in 2016, were ousted, and activists fear the council will become a rubber-stamp parliament, if the seats are not recaptured.
Four of the ejected lawmakers were pro-democracy and two were pro-independence — a red line for Beijing.
Fifteen candidates are running for four of those seats with the results difficult to predict: The streets are mostly quiet, there are few election banners, even fewer televised debates and no comprehensive popularity polls.
“The mood is subdued... Many people feel helpless and think things cannot be changed and the central government will eventually take control over Hong Kong, but that’s why we need to come out now to demand changes, before it is too late,” said 20-year-old student Peter Lee, who attended a pro-democracy rally of a few hundred people.
His preferred candidate, student activist Agnes Chow, 21, has already been disqualified because she supports Hong Kong’s right to self-determination, which China sees as a front for outright independence.
Chow and her party, Demosisto, say they are not advocating independence, but are instead demanding a referendum on Hong Kong’s future, which would include independence, among other options.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” framework that guarantees it a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including limited democracy.
However, massive street protests in 2014 failed to ensure universal suffrage, with Beijing vetting candidates for the territory’s leader chosen by a small electoral group stacked with pro-Beijing elite.
While city-wide elections that fill up half the 70-seat legislature once every four years are seen as the most open, international confidence in Hong Kong’s electoral freedom was shaken after candidates and elected lawmakers were ousted.
The EU in January criticized a government decision to bar Chow from running, while former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind, who represented London in meetings with Beijing in the two years leading up to the 1997 handover, has called the disqualifications “unacceptable.”
“They reinforce the concern, that has already been expressed, that there might be a strategy to diminish Hong Kong’s autonomy in a step-by-step process over the years,” he wrote in a foreword to a report published by British non-government organization Hong Kong Watch on Thursday.
Among the 15 candidates is ousted lawmaker Edward Yiu, a 53-year-old surveyor and former professor who emerged as an unlikely politician after the 2014 protests.
After working as a legislator for nearly a year, a Hong Kong court in July last year, citing a Beijing interpretation, ruled Yiu’s oath of office invalid because he had added a few phrases, including a vow to fight for universal suffrage.
“This election is a vote of no confidence against the disqualifications and against authoritarianism,” Yiu said.
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp emerged victorious in the 2016 city-wide poll that saw a record turnout sending a crop of new young leaders into the legislature.
However, the city’s then chief executive won lawsuits against the six over the validity of their oaths, some laden with profanities and demands for independence, and they were stripped of their seats.
Two more by-elections are expected to be held after an appeal filed by two of the six legislators is over.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of