Hong Kong lawmakers targeted by China

HONG KONG — China moved Wednesday to quash one of the last vestiges of democracy and dissent in Hong Kong, forcing the ouster of four pro-democracy lawmakers from their elected offices in a purge that prompted the rest of the opposition to vow to resign en masse.

The departures will reshape the city’s political landscape, which has been upended since China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong this summer that gave authorities broad powers to crack down on resistance. They mark the intensification of a campaign that has damaged Hong Kong’s global reputation as a bastion for freedom of speech and rule of law. The targeting of the democratically elected lawmakers comes at a time when the United States, which has recently protested China’s treatment of Hong Kong and imposed sanctions, is distracted by its own struggles over the U.S. presidential election.

In Hong Kong in recent months, Beijing-backed authorities have arrested pro-democracy leaders and activists as they resolved to bring Hong Kong to heel and put an end to the protests that engulfed the semi-autonomous Chinese territory for much of last year. Beijing and its supporters have also raised pressure on Hong Kong’s court system and on news outlets that strike a defiant tone.

Their target Wednesday was Hong Kong’s legislature, the Legislative Council, which has stood as a symbol of the “one country, two systems” legal framework designed to preserve democratic freedoms in the former British colony after it returned to Chinese rule.

The legislature has proved an irritant for Beijing, as a group of pro- democracy lawmakers have argued that China’s campaign threatens to erode Hong Kong’s status as a global, open city. Beijing officials moved Wednesday to silence those voices, granting broad new powers that allow the Hong Kong government to remove lawmakers from office who do not show clear loyalty to China.