Hong Kong lawyers prepare protest march after China inflames political crisis

By Tom Phillips in Beijing

Newly elected lawmakers Yau Wai-ching (R) and Sixtus Leung (L), who have been barred by China from taking their seats in Hong Kong’s parliament.

Beijing’s unprecedented eviction of two pro-independence activists from Hong Kong’s parliament has dealt a severe blow to “political extremists”, a Communist party-controlled newspaper has claimed as members of the city’s legal community prepared to take to the streets in protest.
One day after Beijing effectively barred Sixtus ‘Baggio’ Leung and Yau Wai-ching from taking up their seats in the former colony’s 70-seat legislative council, an editorial in the Global Times praised their ousting, arguing that the appeasement of such voices would plunge the financial hub into confusion and ruin.
The Communist party’s official mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, said Beijing was taking decisive action against an intolerable and unrepentant collection of pro-independence “elements” who posed a direct threat to China’s sovereignty and national unity.
“The central government will not hesitate to take effective measures to crack down on and curb the “Hong Kong independence” [movement],” it said.
Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post echoed those views, describing the intervention, which came in the form of a highly unusual interpretation of the former colony’s mini-constitution, as a “strong tool to stamp out pro-independence forces”.
“Beijing is determined to keep separatists out of public office,” the pro-establishment newspaper said.
Pro-democracy activists have reacted to the intervention with astonishment and dismay while the British government expressed its concern in a brief and cautiously worded statement.
In a statement released on Monday night two of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy voices, Nathan Law and Eddie Chu, said Beijing’s ruling was not simply an attack on two pro-independence politicians but rather an attempt to “put the political reins” on the whole of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
“All participants in the democratic movement must stand in solidarity, for no one is safe alone, in the face of such a dictatorship which sees any effort to strive for democracy as a secessionist threat to its rule,” they said.
Speaking to the Guardian, on Monday, Holden Chow, a member of Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing community, suggested Beijing’s intervention was indeed intended to cow those politicians who dared to promote causes such as independence from China.
Chow said Beijing’s move against Yau and Leung should also serve as a warning to those backing “self-determination” -- the idea that Hong Kong’s citizens should have a say in how the former colony is governed after 2047 when the current ‘one country, two systems’ framework under which it has been ruled since handover in 1997 expires.
Chow’s party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), has called for a review of whether another pro-democracy politician, Lau Siu-lai, should also be blocked from taking up her seat because of views.
Hong Kong’s latest political crisis has been brewing for months, with the emergence of a new generation of activists who came of age during the 2014 umbrella movement protests and are now pushing for greater autonomy or outright independence from mainland China.
Six such figures claimed seats in the semi-autonomous city’s parliament in early September, including 25-year-old Yau and 30-year-old Leung, who have publicly backed the idea of a complete split with China.
The two firebrand millennials incurred Beijing’s fury last month when they used a swearing in ceremony as a platform to lash out at China’s rulers, unfurling flags that read “Hong Kong is not China” and using language some found offensive to refer to China.
On Monday, Li Fei, the deputy head of China’s most important legislative panel, told reporters the pair were “national and ethnic traitors”, adding ominously: “All traitors and those who sell out their countries will come to no good end.”
While China’s state-run media has applauded the central government’s clamp down, critics have lamented it as a severe blow to Hong Kong’s limited political autonomy and independent judiciary.
“This is the beginning of the end of Hong Kong,” Claudia Mo, an outspoken pro-democracy legislator, wrote in the Guardian.
Members of Hong Kong’s legal community are set to gather outside its high court on Tuesday afternoon before marching through the former colony’s streets in silence and dressed in black.

More Hong Kong lawmakers at risk of losing office as China equates self-determination with independence

By Ellie Ng

Basic Law Committee Chair Li Fei has said that self-determination is the same as Hong Kong independence and therefore contravenes the territory’s mini-constitution. 

Analysts say that lawmakers who challenge China’s sovereignty will be at risk of disqualification despite having been sworn-in.
The comment came shortly after China’s top legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), voted on and passed the NPCSC’s interpretation of the Basic Law Article 104 of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with unanimous support on Monday. 

It is the fifth Basic Law interpretation since the 1997 handover.

Self-determination
Li said that concepts such as national self-determination and the Hong Kong nation are “essentially” the same as Hong Kong independence, which would contravene the Basic Law which states that Hong Kong is an “inalienable” part of China. 

It would also damage the territory’s rule of law, social order and economy, he said.
Li added that pledging loyalty to Hong Kong and not China practically means support for Hong Kong independence.
Although Li referred to “national self-determination,” which is advocated by the Youngspiration party, there are concerns that advocates of “democratic self-determination” – such as the Demosistō party and independent lawmakers Lau Siu-lai and Edward Yiu Chung-yim – will also be affected.
The latest NPCSC interpretation of the Basic Law said that oaths taken by public officers such as lawmakers and judges are legally binding. 

It warns that those who make a “false oath” or break their oath will be disqualified from assuming public office and bear “legal consequences.”

Lau Siu-lai. 

‘Lawmakers at risk of disqualification’
Lau Siu-kai, former top policy adviser to the government, said on an RTHK programme on Monday that Beijing needed to interpret the Basic Law to make clear its strong stance against moves that could harm China’s national interests. 

The introduction of a national security law would not have effectively solved the imminent issue, he added.
He said the future of Hong Kong should be decided by the whole of China, and that the territory has no right to become independent.
Lau added that the scale of the pro-independence camp in Hong Kong is not big compared with those in Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang. 

Nonetheless, he said, the Chinese government cannot tolerate pro-independence forces in Hong Kong.

The professor predicted that Youngspiration’s Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung Chung-hang are very likely going to be disqualified as lawmakers. 

But the interpretation does not only target the pair; it also aims at provide legal guidance for other oath-taking events, he said.
He cannot rule out the possibility of people filing judicial reviews against lawmakers such as Lau Siu-lai, one of the self-determination advocates in the legislature.
Any lawmakers who advocate independence or challenge China’s sovereignty will be disqualified, as they will have broken the oath, Lau Siu-kai said. 

He added that it would depend on how the authorities handled Monday’s interpretation by the NPCSC.

Criticism
IT sector lawmaker Charles Mok criticised Li’s comment for adding words to the interpretation, which did not mention “self-determination.”
“What do you mean by ‘essentially’? You think you are the law, but let us tell you: you have not solved the problem, but have only made it bigger,” Mok said.
Activist Joshua Wong of the Demosistō party said: “Democratic self-determination means allowing Hongkongers to decide the future of Hong Kong by democratic means. Today, the Chinese Communist Party characterised it as independence.”

Joshua Wong

“It looks like the day when Beijing equates anti-Article-23 [security law] and ‘end one-party rule’ with fueling pro-independence forces is not far away,” Wong said.
Wong’s former colleague Tommy Cheung, one of the student leaders behind the 2014 pro-democracy Occupy protests, said: “If self-determination is independence, then everything is the same as Hong Kong independence.”
A protest against Beijing’s interpretation of the Basic Law was held on Sunday. 

It ended with clashes outside the China Liaison Office, Beijing’s organ in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong MPs defy China during swearing-in ceremony

Politicians declare "Hong Kong is not China", recite oath backwards, and tear placards to protest Beijing authority.
http://www.aljazeera.com/
Yau Wai-ching, an elected MP, unfurled a flag that reads ''Hong Kong is not China'' during the oath taking session.

A swearing-in ceremony to kick off Hong Kong's legislative session descended into a farce, as newly elected pro-democracy politicians intentionally mangled their oaths in a show of defiance against Beijing.
The MPs also displayed flags declaring that Hong Kong is not a part of China, and called out for "democratic self-determination" for the semi-autonomous Chinese city during the oath-taking session on Wednesday.
The protests foreshadow what is expected to be a chaotic term for Hong Kong's semi-democratic Legislative Council after a group of youthful candidates were elected in September, swelling opposition ranks.
The new MPs represent some of a new wave grassroots groups that emerged from the wake of 2014's massive pro-democracy street protests, which failed to win concessions from Beijing but sparked a rising independence movement and a political awakening in many young people.
Al Jazeera's Sarah Clarke, reporting from Hong Kong, said several MPs had chosen various forms of protest, with at least two declaring Hong Kong to be a nation.
Because all politicians were told "to stick to the exact wording, a constitutional requirement", three of them had their oaths rejected.
"We're yet to find out what punishment will prevail," Clarke said. 

"The government has said that anyone who veers away from the exact wording would be punished, and this could mean the disqualification of these politicians from parliament."
Sixtus Leung, 30, of the Youngspiration party draped a blue flag with the words "Hong Kong is not China" over his shoulders and crossed his fingers as he held a Bible while he spoke.
His colleague, Yau Wai-ching, laid the same flag on the table in front of her when it was her turn.
They recited the oath in English, but appeared to deliberately mispronounce the word China as Shina, an old fashioned Japanese term for the country that some see as derogatory.
Yau, 25, also appeared to insert a curse word into her oath.
The legislative clerk admonished them for not sticking to the proper wording and refused to accept their oaths.
Another politician, Lau Siu-lai, who founded her own party, Democracy Groundwork, recited the oath very slowly. 

She took about 10 minutes to repeat the declaration, which has less than 100 words, by pausing for a few seconds after each one, as the rest of the council chamber listened in silence.
Nathan Law, who helped spearhead the 2014 protests and is Hong Kong's youngest ever legislator at age 23, prefaced his oath by quoting Indian independence icon Mahatma Gandhi vowing never to bend to authorities.
"You can chain me. You can torture me. You can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind," said Law, of the Demosisto party.
As he recited the oath, he raised his tone slightly when he mentioned the People's Republic of China, in what some saw as a subtle way of turning the statement into a question about whether to bear allegiance.

Re-elected MP Leung Kwok-hung tears a protest placard while taking the oath at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong.