HK pro-democracy MPs quit in protest

All of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy MPs have announced their resignations in protest at the ousting of four of their colleagues.

Civic Party members Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki , Alvin Yeung, Alan Leong, Dennis Kwok, Cheng Tat-hung, and Tanya Chan in July. Picture: Getty Images

All of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy MPs have announced their resignations in protest at the ousting of four of their colleagues who were judged a threat to ­national security by Beijing.

The resignations will reduce the semi-autonomous city’s once-feisty legislature to a gathering of Chinese central government loyalists, effectively ending pluralism in the chamber.

They also mark another blow to Hong Kong’s beleaguered pro-democracy movement, which has been under sustained attack since China imposed a sweeping ­national security law, including arrests for social media posts and activists fleeing overseas.

“We, from the pro-democracy camp, will stand with our colleagues,” Wu Chi-wai, convener of the 15 remaining pro-democracy legislators, told a press conference. “We will resign en masse.”

Earlier, Hong Kong stripped four pro-democracy MPs of their seats immediately after China gave the city the power to disqualify politicians deemed a threat to national ­security.

The oustings came after pro-democracy members in the semi-autonomous city’s legislature threatened on Monday to resign “en masse” if their colleagues were disqualified.

The Hong Kong government said the four would be immediately expelled from the special ­administration region’s Legislative Council.

“In accordance with the above decision of the standing committee, the SAR government now announces … the following four members … will lose their qualification as legislators immediately: Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Kwok,” the government said.

The move came after the standing committee of the National People’s Congress ruled that Hong Kong could remove any LegCo member deemed a threat to national security without going through the courts.

The national security law was imposed in June to quell months of huge and often violent protests in the finance hub.

China’s leaders have described it as a “sword” hanging over the head of their critics.

Before news of the oustings emerged, Dennis Kwok said: “If observing due process, protecting systems and functions and ­fighting for democracy and human rights would lead to the consequences of being ­disqualified, it would be my honour.”

Mr Kwok had initially been banned from running in the LegCo elections, which were scheduled to be held on September 6, after calling on the US to impose sanctions on Hong Kong officials. Those elections were postponed, with authorities blaming the coronavirus.

This week a US commission said since the law was introduced human rights had deteriorated.

The US congressional-executive commission on China, an agency that monitors human rights, said in a report that the law had led to arrests, sackings and censorship.

The LegCo passes the territory’s laws, but only half of its 70 members are directly elected — and a complex appointment system ensures the city’s pro-Beijing establishment is all but guaranteed a handsome majority.

Scuffles and protests routinely break out, with the pro-democracy minority often resorting to filibustering and other tactics to try to halt bills they oppose.

AFP