China yesterday warned that mass resignations of pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong were a “blatant challenge” to its authority over the territory.
Fifteen legislators were set to quit the Legislative Council (LegCo) in protest at the Beijing-sanctioned ousting of four colleagues.
Most of the 15 did not attend a regular session of the legislature yesterday, and half of the group handed in resignation letters at the Legislative Council’s secretariat in the afternoon, which sparked a furious response from Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“It once again showed their stubborn confrontation against the central government and a blatant challenge to the power of the central government. We severely condemn this,” the office said in a statement. “We have to tell these opposition lawmakers that if they want to use this to advocate a radical fight, and beg for foreign forces to interfere, and once again drag Hong Kong into chaos, that’s a wrong calculation.”
Inside the chamber, government loyalists discussed a transport bill, but without any of the rambunctious debate that has been the mark of Hong Kong’s semi-democracy in recent years.
“Hong Kongers — prepare for a long, long time where there is only one voice in society,” lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting (林卓廷) told reporters outside. “If you are a dissident, get ready for even more pressure.”
He unfurled a banner from a balcony inside the LegCo building that said Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) had brought disaster to the territory and its people, and that her infamy would last 10,000 years.
Lam on Wednesday was granted the power to turf out any legislator who she deems insufficiently patriotic.
She immediately kicked out four lawmakers who she said were a threat to national security.
The move by Beijing “has put the final nail in the coffin,” said Claudia Mo (毛孟靜), one of the lawmakers who resigned. “What’s the point of going to work every morning thinking: ‘Am I going to be kicked out?” Mo said.
Britain yesterday accused China of breaking its international treaty obligations, with British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab saying that the new rules to disqualify elected assembly members was “a clear breach of the legally binding Sino-British Joint Declaration.”
“China has once again broken its promises and undermined Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy,” he said in a statement.
Additional reporting by AP
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