Pro-democracy lawmakers to resign en masse
HONG KONG’S pro-democracy lawmakers announced on Wednesday that they would resign en masse after four of them were ousted from the semi-autonomous Chinese territory’s Legislature in a move one legislator said could sound the“death knell”for democracy there.
The resignation of the 15 remaining pro-democracy lawmakers will ratchet up tensions over the future of Hong Kong, a former British colony that has long been a regional financial hub and bastion of Western-style civil liberties but over which China’s government has increasingly tightened its control. A new national security law imposed by Beijing this year has alarmed the international community.
The mass departure will also leave Hong Kong’s Legislature with only pro-Beijing lawmakers, who already made up a majority but can now pass bills favoured by Beijing without much opposition.
The lawmakers told a news conference that they would submit their letters of resignation on Thursday. The announcement came hours after the Hong Kong government said it was disqualifying the four legislators – Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki, and Kenneth Leung.
The ousters came after China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee passed a resolution this week saying that any lawmaker who supports Hong Kong’s independence, refuses to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over t he city, threatens national security, or asks external forces to interfere in the city’s affairs should be disqualified.
“Today, we will resign from our positions because our partners, our colleagues, have been disqualified by the central government’s ruthless move,”Wu Chi-wai, the leader of the prodemocracy camp, told reporters.