Hong Kong backs China bid to bar rebel lawmakers

HONG KONG – Agence France-Presse

Hong Kong’s leader said Nov. 7 he would “fully implement” a ruling by Beijing which effectively bars two elected pro-independence lawmakers from the city’s legislature after they deliberately misread their oaths of office.

It comes as fears grow that China is tightening its grip on the semi-autonomous city with concerns that Hong Kong’s rule of law and court system are now under threat.

Beijing’s intervention pre-empts a decision by Hong Kong’s High Court into whether rebel lawmakers Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching should be disqualified from taking up their seats. That court decision is still pending.

An oath that did not conform to Hong Kong’s law “should be determined to be invalid, and cannot be retaken,” the Communist-controlled National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing said in a rare interpretation of the city’s constitution.

Hong Kong’s CEO Leung Chun-ying told reporters that he and the city government would “implement the interpretation fully.” 

“Any words or deeds that deliberately contravene [the interpretation’s] requirements, defy the prescribed oath-taking procedures, or even use the opportunity to insult the country and the Chinese people and advocate cessation, must be stopped in accordance with the law,” Leung said.

Hong Kong is a former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a promise of “one country, two systems” for 50 years.

But there are deep concerns those liberties, enshrined in the city’s constitution known as the Basic Law, are at risk, and mass protests two years ago demanded greater democracy.

As frustrations build, an independence movement demanding a split from Beijing has emerged.

Yau and Baggio included expletives and derogatory terms in their oaths of office last month, and draped themselves in “Hong Kong is not China” flags.

They sought a second chance to take their oaths, but both the Hong Kong government and Beijing have stepped in to prevent that.

Hong Kong police used pepper spray Nov. 6 to drive back hundreds of protesters angry at China’s decision to intervene in the row.

In chaotic scenes reminiscent of the demonstrations of 2014, protesters charged metal fences set up by police outside China’s liaison office in the city.

The Nov. 7 announcement was the fifth time since the handover that China has interpreted the Basic Law.

Li Fei, the chairman of the Basic Law Committee of the NPC Standing Committee, told reporters: “These Hong Kong independence figures are going against the country and splitting the country. How can they uphold Hong Kong’s Basic Law?”

“I hope people can see the real face of these people,” he added.