Hong Kong's banned lawmakers aren't backing down

By James Griffiths

Hong Kong -- Yau Wai-ching and Sixtus "Baggio" Leung would be forgiven for feeling a little shell shocked.
They've gone from being stars of Hong Kong's nascent independence movement, to public enemy number one, criticized in newspapers and on television, and harassed online.
In September, the pair were elected to Hong Kong's parliament, LegCo, where they joined a raft of other young lawmakers favoring greater autonomy for the city or even independence from China.
"When we were elected, our battle between the people and government was just starting," Yau, a 25-year-old former community worker, told CNN.
That battle has escalated far quicker than anyone could imagine. 

On November 2, Yau and Leung were dragged from LegCo by security guards as they found themselves at the center of a legal battle that threatens to undermine the city's already shaky political system.

Oathgate

The saga began as lawmakers were taking their oaths of office last month. 

While pro-democracy politicians have used the ceremony as a venue for protest in the past, Yau and Leung took it a step further.
They swore and insulted China and displayed flags with the words "Hong Kong is not China," leading to their oaths being rejected, along with several other lawmakers who flubbed their vows.
The pair were due to retake their oaths properly the following week when everything got a lot more complicated. 

Hong Kong government officials sued to prevent them being sworn-in again, arguing they had forgone their opportunity.
Before the court could rule, Beijing too waded in, using a rarely-used power to re-interpret Hong Kong's constitution.

Sixtus "Baggio" Leung and Yau Wai-ching speak to CNN.

Yau and Leung could not retake their oaths, and would not become lawmakers, Beijing said. 

This was later backed up by a Hong Kong court, though the pair are appealing.
"We were elected by over 50,000 voters," Leung said, adding that he was fighting to "protect our system and the separation of powers and the rule of law."
Yau defended the pair's protest as a tradition, pointing to occasions in the past where other lawmakers used the oath-taking session "for a performance or chance to show their ideologies."
Displaying the flags was just a statement of fact, Leung added, "Hong Kong is not China."
They would not comment on the content of their oaths, due to the ongoing appeal.

What's at stake?

Beijing's ruling came as a shock to much of Hong Kong.
Last week, wearing black and led by a marshal holding a black umbrella, more than 2,000 lawyers marched on the city's top court, in a silent demonstration against what they saw was a blow to the city's judicial autonomy.
"This is treachery on behalf of the (Chinese government) to the Hong Kong people. How can they ever trust them again?" said Alan Leong, a former barrister and co-founder of the pro-democracy Civic Party, adding that Beijing's ruling was "completely unnecessary."
The fear is that Beijing's interpretation, which requires officials to pledge allegiance to Hong Kong as an inalienable part of China, will undermine judicial independence and the "one country, two systems" principle under which the city is governed.
"By preventing the two pro-independence politicians from taking office, the Chinese government has opened the door to disqualify anyone from Hong Kong's government if they are determined to not be loyal to Beijing," pro-democrat lawmaker Claudia Mo wrote in an op-ed after the ruling.
Some fear that Beijing is also indicating a willingness to change the constitution at will. 

Before the most recent interpretation, the power had only been used four times in the past 19 years.

Yau Wai-ching holds a court ruling as she leaves the High Court in Hong Kong on November 15, 2016.

Why did Beijing act?

The oath-taking saga comes amid increasing support in Hong Kong for independence from China, which has caused concern and outrage in Beijing.
In the run-up to the LegCo elections in September, several pro-independence candidates were banned from taking part, including Edward Leung (no relation to Baggio), then the city's most famous separatist politician.
Yau and Leung's actions "hit the bottom line of the 'one country, two systems' principle and posed a grave threat to national sovereignty and security," China's top lawmaking body said in a statement this month.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said last week that "pro-independence forces in Hong Kong want to split the nation."
Leung accused his and Yau's critics of "blaming the victim," and argued that it is Beijing which has fostered support for independence through its heavy-handed actions.
"They're the ones who caused a generation of Hong Kongers to think that 'one country, two systems,' isn't working," he said.
Yau added that people should recognize the arrangement is "a failed experiment, no country would choose to rule a city in this way."
If Hong Kong does not become independent, she said, then it is just the same as any other Chinese city.

Despite widespread outrage over Beijing's intervention, including mass protests, Yau and Leung have also come in for a whirlwind of criticism, even from anti-Beijing quarters.
Chinese state media said that it was "the will and demand of the entire population of China" that the pair be ejected, and pro-Beijing groups staged a protest against them holding signs such as "Yau and Leung get out of China."

While other pro-democrat lawmakers have largely stood in solidarity with the pair, outside LegCo reaction has been decidedly mixed, with some supporters even expressing frustration over Yau and Leung's actions.

While Yau and Leung said they are determined to keep fighting to the end (the case has not yet reached Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal), it is clear events are taking their toll.

"Most Hong Kongers are sympathetic to us," Yau said. 

At times however, criticism has turned personal.
The youngest woman ever elected to LegCo, Yau has frequently been the target of offensive and sexist comments, and at a protest last month pro-Beijing groups displayed a naked sex doll with her face on it.
While Yau denied that her gender has been a factor, she said the criticism has made her family worry for her safety.
Paraphrasing a song lyric by Canto-rock singer Candy Lo, Leung said he could handle being "abandoned by the world" so long as he had something to love.
"Hong Kong is like a sinking ship," he said, but one he hoped to save.

US Criticism Mild as China Bars Hong Kong Independence Activists

By Michael Lipin

Newly elected Hong Kong lawmakers Yau Wai-ching (left) and Sixtus Leung react during a press conference outside the high court in Hong Kong, Nov. 15, 2016. Two newly elected Hong Kong separatist lawmakers were disqualified from taking office in a court decision.

WASHINGTON — China’s unprecedented barring of two election-winning Hong Kong independence activists from becoming lawmakers has drawn a mild expression of disappointment from Washington.
Hong Kong’s High Court disqualified the two legislators-elect, Sixtus Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching, Tuesday, saying they failed to take a valid oath at a ceremony last month and would not get a second chance. 

Leung and Yau had altered the wording of the Hong Kong Legislative Council’s oath of office by using a derogatory term for China and displaying a “Hong Kong is not China” banner.
Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty from British colonial rule in 1997 under a constitution guaranteeing it a high degree of autonomy as part of one country with two systems of government.
Days before the Hong Kong court acted against the two independence activists, China’s top legislative body issued a ruling November 7 calling for the disqualification of Hong Kong legislators-elect who do not sincerely swear an oath of allegiance to Beijing.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee ruling, an interpretation of the Hong Kong constitution, or Basic Law, prompted U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner to say the Obama administration is “disappointed by recent developments related to” the Legislative Council (Legco). 

Toner also urged Chinese and Hong Kong authorities and Hong Kong lawmakers to “refrain from actions that … undermine confidence in the one country, two systems principle.”
Newly elected Hong Kong lawmakers Yau Wai-ching (centre left) and Sixtus Leung talk to journalists during a press conference outside the high court in Hong Kong, Nov. 15, 2016. A Hong Kong High Court judge ruled that Sixtus Leung and Yau of the Youngspiration party violated a section of the semiautonomous Chinese city's constitution, the Basic Law, as well as laws covering oaths taken by officials.

Another State Department spokesperson, Elizabeth Trudeau, reacted to the Hong Kong court’s November 15 move by saying Washington was aware of the development and repeating parts of Toner’s earlier statement, but without expressing disappointment or urging anyone to refrain from particular actions.

Familiar ambiguity
The Obama administration’s latest comments about Hong Kong appear to follow a pattern. 

In recent years, it has expressed concern about Hong Kong’s political disputes and social unrest related to democratic reforms, while also declining to take sides between the Chinese territory’s opposing pro-democracy and pro-Beijing/pro-establishment factions.
Robert Daly, director of the Washington-based Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, told VOA’s China 360 podcast that the Obama administration wants to avoid being once again portrayed by China as manipulating Hong Kong politics. 

Pro-Beijing media outlets accused Washington of inciting Hong Kong’s 2014 pro-democracy protests and labeled protest leaders as American agents.
“I see the vagueness of the Obama administration’s latest remarks as recognizing the complexity of the situation, and recognizing that Chinese leaders may be acting unwisely but not technically outside of their jurisdiction,” Daly said. 

“The United States does not want to give Beijing a club with which to beat people in Hong Kong, namely, saying that they are the tools of America.”
Leung and Yau have expressed no remorse for their actions at the October 12 swearing-in ceremony. They have vowed to appeal their disqualification from Legco to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal.
If Yau and Leung lose their appeal, Hong Kong will have to hold by-elections to fill their vacant Legco seats. 

Any such elections likely would be held early next year, by which time Hong Kong’s independence movement will be an issue for the next U.S. administration of Donald Trump to deal with.

The People’s Refucking of Shina

My oath - new brave generation of Hong Kong lawmakers insults China
By Zheping Huang

Yau Wai-ching takes to the podium. 

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers have long used the swearing-in ceremony, held every four years, to defy Beijing’s creeping control over the semi-autonomous city. 

In the past, for instance, they’ve added new phrases to the oath, or chanted anti-Beijing slogans before or after approaching the podium, or carried banners with words (like “universal suffrage”) sure to irritate the mainland’s Chinese Communist Party. 

It’s become something of a tradition.
The latest swearing-in ceremony was held on Oct. 12, and some fine additions to the tradition were added to the mix. 

One lawmaker toted a yellow umbrella—a symbol of the 2014 Occupy protests—and another held a torn-up copy of controversial legislation helping Beijing pre-screen candidates for Hong Kong’s top position of “chief executive.”
But then things took a funny turn, thanks to younger legislators who emerged from the street protest two years ago and were elected for the first time last month.
Among them was Yau Wai-ching, a 25-year-old from the newly formed Youngspiration party. After her first oath was rejected by the Legco secretary, Yau quickly made a second attempt. 

She said: “I Yau Wai Ching do solemnly sincerely and truly declare and affirm that, being a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Refucking of Shina, I will uphold the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Refucking of Shina, bear allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Refucking of Shina and serve the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region conscientiously, dutifully, in full accordance with the law, honestly and with integrity.”
In this version, she changed “People’s Republic of China” into “People’s Refucking of Shina.”
By doing that, Yau slapped the Communist regime in the face.

Shina is an archaic way of referring to China in Japanese. 

It originated from Cina in Hindu texts (pdf, p. 7). 

The word was used neutrally in both Japanese and Chinese until Japan invaded China during the Second World War. 

Since then, it’s been considered an offensive racial slur aimed at Chinese. 

In 1946, the Japanese government banned the term (link in Japanese) in any formal publications, at the request of Republic of China’s government.
Shina is offensive to Chinese, according to a commentary about Yau’s oath in HK01, a digital publication calls itself “advocacy media.” 

The word is just as offensive in Hong Kong, Macau, or Taiwan as it is in mainland China, it added, with the most recent headline-grabbing outburst being in 2014, when Hong Kongers taunted Chinese tourists and immigrants as “locusts” and Shina on the streets and online.
Yau’s Youngspiration colleague, 30-year-old Leung Chun-hang, took a similar oath that also incorporated Shina. 

They are as a result banned from voting in subsequent sessions in the Legco, unless they retake the oath sticking to the script.