Ousted Hong Kong lawmakers were Canadian citizens
Half of the four pro-democracy lawmakers expelled from Hong Kong’s legislature this week are former Canadian citizens, and one activist believes that’s one reason they were singled out for ouster.
The government’s forced removal of the Legislative Council (Legco) members prompted the body’s 15 other democratic politicians to announce they were all resigning in protest, dramatically underscoring China’s clampdown on Hong Kong.
The developments left the city’s Beijing-controlled government with virtually no opposition as the People’s Republic increasingly imposes its will on the city.
Both Alvin Yeung and Dennis Kwok, two of the four members thrown out of Legco, renounced their Canadian citizenship in recent years before entering politics in Hong Kong.
Yeung emigrated to Canada with his mother in the early 1990s, attending high school and university in Ontario, before returning to Hong Kong as an adult. Canadian-born Kwok left Canada at age three but kept his citizenship until 2012.
They and the two others ejected by the Hong Kong government under a new rule were considered “very moderate” among Legco’s democratic minority, said Cherie Wong of the group Alliance Canada Hong Kong.
They may have been targeted as a warning to the more radical lawmakers that no one is safe from Communist Party (CCP) retribution, she said, citing a Chinese saying, “Kill the chicken to scare the monkey.”
But it’s also likely a statement about their foreign roots, Wong argued.
“The fact these two were Canadian citizens is a very, very strong signal,” she said. “A lot of these things are happening in a symbolic manner … And now they are in danger, really.”
It’s difficult to know if Kwok and Yeung were targeted, said Guy Saint-Jacques, a former ambassador to Beijing. But he said it’s possible, citing controversial comments by China’s Canadian ambassador recently.
Cong Peiwu warned Canada to not give sanctuary to those fleeing prosecution under a new national security law if it cares about “the good health and safety of those 300,000 Canadian passport holders in Hong Kong.”
Other activists said they doubted that the pair’s past citizenship was an issue. But all agreed the Canadian government should take a tough stance on what’s happening in Hong Kong, which means imposing sanctions on officials like chief executive Carrie Lam.
Saint-Jacques also said sanctions should be seriously considered, but in conjunction with other countries.
Hong Kong had once been a relatively liberal counterpoint to mainland China under the “one country, two systems” arrangement. But Beijing’s grip on the city has steadily tightened in the last few years, especially in the wake of mass protests calling for more democracy in 2019.
That culminated in the draconian new national security law implemented earlier this year, while Legco elections were postponed and the four now-removed legislators were told they could not run again.
Then came a new rule from China’s National People’s Congress saying the Hong Kong government could unilaterally throw out lawmakers for failing to show sufficient loyalty to the mainland government.
The first to go were Kwok and Yeung, both part of the Civic Party, and their two colleagues, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung.
About 300,000 Canadian citizens live in Hong Kong, Canada’s largest expatriate population outside of North America.
As an elected member of Legco, Yeung had to renounce his Canadian citizenship to run for the council, but told Postmedia last year the lessons he learned about democracy while living here stuck with him.
“The Alvin Yeung you’re seeing today, most of it comes from the Canadian education,” he said. “It’s always here. It’s the values that matter more.”
Kwok, as an unelected member of a “functional constituency,” did not have to give up his citizenship but did so to show he was “wholeheartedly” committed to serving Hong Kong, he told Postmedia. Still, he said he has tried to apply Canadian ideals of “freedom and democracy and rule of law” to his work there.
Fenella Sung of the group Canadian Friends of Hong Kong does not buy that a Canadian background had anything to do with their removal, saying Chinese ethnicity, not nationality, is what matters to Beijing.