Hong Kong plunged into turmoil after Beijing bars lawmakers

“After today, people feel one step closer toward an authoritarian society, they feel a greater degree of deprivation of a fundamental right to elect their own legislator”, he said.

Ahead of the Beijing’s announcement to interpret Article 104 of the Basic Law in a bid to disqualify two pro-independence lawmakers, Sixtus Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching, Yuen last week publicly expressed his wish to have the saga settled at the local level.

In its ruling, the National People’s Congress (NPC) interpreted a section of Hong Kong law which says “if any official who does not swear the oath properly, they can not take office”.

Li Fei, chairman of the Basic Law committee at China’s parliament, added that any calls for “self-determination” or advocating for independence were at odds with the very nature of Basic Law and would harm territorial intergrity and national security if allowed to continue.

The scope of Monday’s interpretation will raise inevitable questions about whether China is interpreting Hong Kong law, which is allowed, or re-writing it, which is not. They demanded that China’s central government stay out of the political dispute, saying the move would undermine the city’s considerable autonomy and independent judiciary by bypassing the top court, where the case is now being heard.

Beijing said any oath taker who does not follow the prescribed wording of oath, “or takes the oath in a manner which is not honest or not solemn”, should be disqualified. Police used pepper spray; protestors used bricks.

They first earned the ire of Beijing and the Hong Kong authorities by misreading their oaths during their official swearing-in, using expletives and derogatory terms for China. On top of that, the race to be Hong Kong’s next chief executive in 2017 has already begun.

The Writing on the Wall: Disappeared Booksellers and Free Expression in Hong Kong report, which was released over the weekend at the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, explores the abduction of five Hong Kong booksellers by Chinese authorities late previous year. The idea was that Hong Kong would be able to keep its style of government and its identity without being overwhelmed by China.

Three articles include “Hong Kong independence” in the headline, and two of these appear in the past week, a sign of how much the issue is being prioritised in a relative sense.

This morning at its meeting in Beijing, in accordance with the requirements of Article 67 (4) of the Constitution and Article 158 (1) of the Basic Law, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) issued its Interpretation (Interpretation) and clear explanations concerning oath-taking by public officers specified in Article 104 of the Basic Law, including LegCo members, when assuming office. But “whether the political opposition forces in Hong Kong can translate that more widespread public awareness into a stronger, united, sustained democracy movement that will be a big project”. We have to plug the dyke, but there’s nothing Hong Kong people can do and that explains all the fear, anger, resentment and frustration you now see in the city.

Legislators had to be “sincere and solemn” when taking their oaths, and had to pledge “completely and solemnly” to uphold the Basic Law of Hong Kong as part of the People’s Republic of China, the NPC declared at the Great Hall of the People on Tiananmen Square.

Claudia Mo is a member of Hong Kong’s legislative council and founding member of the Civic Party. This comes after two lawmakers-elect violated the oath intentionally during the swearing in of the region’s Legislative Council earlier in October.

Fan said Xi’s men might have been behind a series of Hong Kong newspaper comments criticizing Chinese officials in Hong Kong for fanning local antipathy toward Beijing, an indication that a “factional struggle” might be going on inside the Communist Party of China.

When the legislature’s president chose to let the localists retake their oaths, Hong Kong’s China-backed chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, asked a local court to block the move and vacate their seats. “The Hong Kong people do not want Hong Kong destroyed”.