New HK lawmakers thumb noses at China
> Three representatives not sworn into Legco after ‘modifying’ their oaths
HONG KONG: Rebel lawmakers swore, shouted, banged drums and railed against “tyranny” yesterday when they took their oaths of office in Hong Kong’s parliament, as calls grow for a split from Beijing.
The chaotic first meeting of the new term of the Legislative Council (Legco) came after a vote last month saw victories for several lawmakers advocating more autonomy or even independence.
The city is semi-autonomous under a deal sealed when Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997.
The arrangement protects Hong Kong’s freedoms for 50 years, but there are increasing concerns those liberties are disappearing as China tightens its grip.
Lawmakers are required to recite a short oath in Legco before they can officially take up their seats.
That oath declares repeatedly that Hong Kong is a “special administrative region” of China.
The government had warned lawmakers in advance they risked losing their seats if they did not take the oath properly.
Nathan Law, 23, Legco’s youngest lawmaker and a former pro-democracy protest leader, delivered an impassioned speech ahead of taking the oath.
“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body – but you can never imprison my mind,” he said, quoting India’s independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.
Each time he referred to China in the oath, he changed the tone to turn it into a question.
Law was one of the main leaders of the 2014 Umbrella Movement rallies which brought tens of thousands to the streets.
Two new pro-independence lawmakers, Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching, added their own words before the oath, pledging to serve the “Hong Kong nation”.
Both displayed flags emblazoned with the words: “Hong Kong is not China”.
Leung took the full oath in English but refused to pronounce “China” correctly, instead calling it “Cheena”.
New lawmaker Eddie Chu, who advocates a public referendum on Hong Kong’s future sovereignty, shouted “Democratic self-determination! Tyranny will perish!” after taking his oath.
Teacher Lau Siu-lai, also a former Umbrella Movement activist, read every word of the oath at a snail’s pace, prompting some pro-Beijing lawmakers to walk out.
The Legco clerk told Leung, Yau and one other pro-democracy lawmaker that he was unable to “administer” their oaths, because they had modified them. It is not yet clear if the lawmakers deemed not to have taken the oath properly will be barred from taking up their seats. – AFP