• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Friday, May 20, 2022
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

China Muslim Uyghurs
Opinion

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

by Jianli Yang
April 23, 2022
Chinese leader Xi Jinping
Opinion

How Wrong ‘How China Can End the War in Ukraine’ Is

by Yan Yu and Jianli Yang
April 1, 2022
Protestors hold signs as they gather during a rally for Uyghur Freedom
Featured

It’s Time We Give Corporations a Human Rights Scorecard

by Jianli Yang and Alvaro Piaggio
March 9, 2022
China Uyghurs
World

UN Says No Rights Report on China’s Xinjiang Before Olympics

by Staff Writer
January 28, 2022
China Uyghurs
World

French Parliament Officially Recognizes China’s Uyghur ‘Genocide’

by Staff Writer
January 20, 2022
China Uyghurs
Business

China Blasts US ‘Hypocrisy’ Over Tesla Xinjiang Showroom

by Staff Writer
January 6, 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

Volkswagen logo

German Farmer Sues Volkswagen Over CO2 Emissions

May 20, 2022
Vladimir Putin

Russia Says Economy Grew 3.5 Percent in First Quarter

May 18, 2022
Mexico missing people

Over 100,000 People Reported Missing in Mexico, Data Reveals

May 17, 2022
Shireen Abu Akleh

Jerusalem Archbishop Condemns Israeli Police Raid at Journalist’s Funeral

May 16, 2022
A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
Israel

15 European Nations Urge Israel to Reverse Plans for More Settler Homes

May 13, 2022

Opinion

A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

April 23, 2022
Ukraine war

The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis and the Hierarchies of Western Compassion

April 20, 2022
Chinese leader Xi Jinping

How Wrong ‘How China Can End the War in Ukraine’ Is

April 1, 2022
Ukraine children

The War for Ukraine’s Lives and Minds

March 30, 2022
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