Fifteen pro-democracy legislators are resigning from the Hong Kong Legislative Council after four of their colleagues were forced to leave the body.
The lawmakers announced on Wednesday their intention to present their resignations on Thursday.
“Many people will consider today a dark day. It is hard for me to say it isn’t,” Kwok Ka-ki, one of the four removed lawmakers, told reporters. “As long as our resolve to fight for freedom, equality, and justice remains unchanged, one day, we will see the return of the core values we cherish.”
The removals came about after China’s Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved a resolution allowing authorities to push out members of the council summarily without going through the local court system.
As a result of this resolution, four lawmakers were determined to be in violation of China’s “national security” law for the city. That law, which was passed earlier this year, criminalizes acts of secession, subversion, terrorism, and collusion with foreign forces and allows offenders to be punished with sentences of up to life in prison. The law was written so vaguely that it has been used to target the government’s dissidents.
“Sooner or later, we would all have been disqualified,” said Wu Chi-wai, another one of the legislators.
In 1997, the United Kingdom agreed to return Hong Kong to Chinese control, provided that the city be allowed to maintain a degree of autonomy for 50 years. This created the policy known as “one country, two systems.” The U.K. and the United States have criticized this new law as a clear violation of that agreement.
“There is separation of powers under the Basic Law,” Wu added. “But today, the central government’s decision means separation of powers will be taken away. All the power will be centralized in the chief executive — a puppet of the central government. So, today is the end of ‘one country, two systems.'”
Earlier in the year, pro-democracy forces held an unofficial primary in which 600,000 people voted. Organizers only expected 170,000 people to show up. China later proclaimed that those who had either participated in or organized the primary had engaged in “nakedly illegal behavior.”
Two legislators will remain in the council who lean to the opposition side, but no full-fledged members of the coalition will stay on board.
Kwok said, “If observing due process, protecting systems and functions, fighting for democracy and human rights would lead to the consequences of being disqualified, it would be my honor.”
