China targets Hong Kong’s lawmakers
Beijing-led purge prompts opposition to vow to resign
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 independent 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 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.
Within minutes of Beijing’s announcement, Hong Kong officials ejected the four lawmakers, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki, Kenneth Leung and Alvin Yeung. Hours after their removal from office, the remaining 15 members of their bloc said they were stepping down in solidarity.
“Together we stand!” lawmakers in the pro-democracy camp chanted as they held hands in a conference room in the Legislative Council building. One of the legislators, Wu Chi-wai, told reporters they would tender their resignations in protest today.
“Under authoritarianism, the road to democracy will be extremely long and arduous, but we will absolutely not be defeated by its pressures,” Wu said. “We will inevitably find new paths.”
The lawmakers said they believed the legislature is now so compromised by the government’s power to stamp out opposition they must work outside the system.
“Many people will consider today a dark day. It is hard for me to say it isn’t,” Kwok Ka-ki said.
“As long as our resolve to fight for freedom, equality and justice remains unchanged, one day we will see the return of the core values we cherish.”
Hong Kong government appeared to welcome the resignations, which will give it much freer rein to pursue its agenda. Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, dismissed suggestions the absence of the opposition lawmakers would tarnish the legislature if it pushed through policies favoured by Beijing’s supporters.
“Of course we want the Legislative Council to pass the bills that we propose. We feel all the more excited when they can be passed in an efficient manner,” she said. “As the executive branch, we work in the hopes that the council will support and pass our bills.”
Democracy in Hong Kong has always come with caveats. Its top leader, the chief executive, is appointed in a process controlled by Beijing. Half of the Legislative Council’s 70 members are selected by groups called functional constituencies that represent various industries and other establishment groups.
But the legislature, nicknamed LegCo, had been one of the most visible signs Hong Kong remained distinct from mainland China, where the Communist Party dominates government and dissent is swiftly silenced.
Many of the seats are elected directly by the public, helping to give the pro-democracy camp a sizable minority and a forum to express its views to the establishment. Hong Kong’s local constitution, which came into effect upon the 1997 handover, even promised eventual direct elections for the entire legislature as well as the chief executive. Instead, the room for opposition voices in the legislature is shrinking rapidly.
On Wednesday, Chinese officials outlined the new measure designed to keep the Legislative Council in line. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislative body, said lawmakers who support Hong Kong independence, refuse to recognize the country’s sovereignty over the city, seek out foreign or external forces to interfere with domestic affairs, or engage in acts that endanger national security will face immediate disqualification.