• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Democracy at Risk

Hong Kong Ousts Four Pro-Democracy Lawmakers After China Ruling

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
11/11/20
in Democracy at Risk, World
From front left; pro-democracy lawmakers Kenneth Leung, Dennis Kwok, Alvin Yeung and Kwok Ka-ki

From front left; pro-democracy lawmakers Kenneth Leung, Dennis Kwok, Alvin Yeung and Kwok Ka-ki attend a press conference in Hong Kong on Monday. Photo: Peter Parks/AFP via Getty Images

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

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

The ousting comes after 19 pro-democracy lawmakers in the semi-autonomous city’s legislature threatened Monday to resign “en masse” if their colleagues were disqualified.

Hong Kong’s government said the four would “lose their qualification as legislators immediately”.

The statement came after The National People’s Congress Standing Committee — one of China’s top lawmaking committees — ruled that Hong Kong could remove any legislator deemed a threat to national security without going through the courts.

The disqualifications are the latest blow to the city’s beleaguered 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.

It 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.

‘My honor’

“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 honor,” Dennis Kwok, one of the disqualified lawmakers, told reporters Wednesday.

The four had initially been banned from running in the semi-autonomous city’s legislative elections, which were scheduled to be held September 6, after calling on the US to impose sanctions on Hong Kong officials.

Those elections were postponed, with authorities blaming the coronavirus.

Hong Kong’s legislature 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.

A mass resignation would leave the legislature composed almost entirely of those toeing Beijing’s line.

Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam said the disqualifications were “constitutional, legal, reasonable and necessary”. 

The inability of Hong Kongers to elect their leaders and lawmakers has been at the heart of swelling opposition to Beijing’s rule.

More than 10,000 people were arrested during the democracy protests, and the courts are now filled with trials — many of them involving opposition lawmakers and prominent activists.

Critics say the law’s broadly worded provisions are a hammer blow to the flickering freedoms that China promised Hong Kong could keep after the end of British colonial rule in 1997.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Chinese President Xi Jinping
Opinion

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

by Baptiste Monnet
March 15, 2023
An AFP journalist views an example of a "deepfake" video manipulated using artificial intelligence.
Featured

Deepfake ‘News Anchors’ in Pro-China Footage: Research

by Staff Writer
February 13, 2023
A woman undergoing COVID test in China
Featured

Soaring Covid Cases Shine Light on China’s Healthcare Gap

by Staff Writer
January 11, 2023
Members of the Muslim Uyghurs minority demonstrate
World

EU to Ban Products Made Using Forced Labor, Risking China Anger

by Staff Writer
September 14, 2022
China Uyghurs
World

US Says UN Report Shows Xinjiang ‘Genocide’ as China Irate

by Staff Writer
September 1, 2022
A demonstrator sprays paint over an upside-down portrait of Chinese leader Xi Jinping
World

China Use of Psychiatric Hospitals to Punish Activists ‘Widespread:’ Report

by Staff Writer
August 17, 2022
Next Post
A police crackdown on a protest against the murder of a woman in the Mexican resort city of Cancun.

Police Crackdown Rocks Top Mexican Tourist Resort Cancun

Fear, Falsehoods, and Flags: The GOP Sleight of Hand

Why Were the Pollsters Wrong Again in 2020?

Recommended

Damage from a series of powerful storms and at least one tornado is seen on March 25, 2023, in Rolling Fork, Mississippi

After Tornado Kills 25, Mississippi Faces More Extreme Weather

March 26, 2023
Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
participants of an artificial intelligence conference

How AI Could Upend the World Even More Than Electricity or the Internet

March 19, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
Heavily armed police inspect the area near a Jehovah's Witness church where several people have been killed in a shooting in Hamburg, northern Germany

Eight Dead in Shooting at Jehovah’s Witness Hall in Germany

March 10, 2023
Myanmar Rohingya refugees look on in a refugee camp in Teknaf, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar, on November 26, 2016

US Announces $26M in New Aid for Rohingya

March 8, 2023

Opinion

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker speaks to protesters in Times Square near a military recruitment centre

Tennessee Is A Drag on the First Amendment

March 26, 2023
Chinese President Xi Jinping

China’s Path to Economic Dominance

March 15, 2023
An earthquake survivor reacts as rescuers look for victims and other survivors in Hatay, a Turkish province where hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the earthquake

Heed the Call of Our Broken World

March 1, 2023
Top view of the US House of Representatives

‘Cringy Awards:’ Who Is the Most Embarrassing US House Representative?

February 13, 2023
Protesters rally against the fatal police assault of Tyre Nichols, outside of the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center in Detroit, Michigan, on January 27, 2023

How Do Violent ‘Monsters’ Take Root?

February 3, 2023
George Santos from the 3rd Congressional district of New York

George Santos for Speaker!

January 16, 2023
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post