More than 2,000 join
silent protest after China intervened in supposedly independent legal system to
stop activists joining parliament
Lawyers take part in a silent protest march through downtown Hong Kong. Photograph: Kin Cheung/AP
More than 2,000 lawyers and
activists have paraded through Hong Kong in silence and dressed
in black to protest against Beijing’s unprecedented intervention in the former
British colony’s supposedly independent legal system as a means of ousting two
democratically elected pro-independence politicians.
The demonstration, reportedly only the
fourth of its kind since Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule in
1997, comes a day after Beijing issued a rare and highly controversial legal interpretation of Hong Kong’s
mini-constitution to prevent two young activists from taking up their
seats in the 70-seat parliament.
“I really don’t know how long
Hong Kong can take it,” said Audrey Eu, a pro-democracy politician who was
among those to join the march going from outside the high court to the court of
final appeal on Tuesday afternoon.
The Civic party chairwoman,
who like many of the protesters had come in black funeral attire, accused
Beijing of seriously undermining the city’s autonomy with its actions.
“They think that by … taking
away people’s rights [to take office] then Hong Kong people will become silent.
But it doesn’t work like that. The more severe the attack, the more repression
there is, very often the reaction goes stronger, particularly among young
people,” Eu said.
“A lot of people feel that if
measured response and rational discussion does not help then maybe they are
going to go further down the road of violence – and that really does not bode
well for Hong Kong.”
Sixtus “Baggio” Leung, 30, and
Yau Wai-ching, 25, the two politicians at the centre of the storm, were elected
to Hong Kong’s legislative council in early September, carried into office by a
wave of discontent at what many perceive as Beijing’s growing meddling in the
former colony’s affairs.
But the two firebrands set
themselves on a collision course with China’s rulers last month when they used
their swearing in ceremony to lash out at Beijing, unfurling flags that read
“Hong Kong is not China”.
On Monday, China reacted to what it
appears to have viewed as an unforgivable affront by issuing an interpretation
of Hong Kong’s Basic Law that in effect bars the pair from taking up their
parliamentary roles.
Experts described the move as
China’s most direct intervention in the semi-autonomous city’s legal system
since handover.
Li Fei, the deputy head of
China’s most important legislative panel, told reporters Yau and Leung were
“national and ethnic traitors”, adding ominously: “All traitors and those who
sell out their countries will come to no good end.”
China’s state media applauded
the move on Tuesday. The Communist party’s official mouthpiece, the People’s
Daily, vowed that “no mercy” would be shown to an intolerable and unrepentant
collection of pro-independence “elements” who posed a direct threat to Chinese
sovereignty.
Hong Kong’s South China
Morning Post echoed those views, describing the intervention as a “strong tool
to stamp out pro-independence forces”.
“Beijing is determined to keep
separatists out of public office,” the pro-establishment
newspaper said.
Pro-democracy activists have
reacted to the intervention with astonishment and dismay.
In a statement released on
Monday night two of Hong Kong’s leading pro-democracy voices, Nathan Law and
Eddie Chu, said Beijing’s ruling was not simply an attack on two
pro-independence politicians but rather an attempt to “put the political reins”
on the whole of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
“All participants in the
democratic movement must stand in solidarity, for no one is safe alone, in the
face of such a dictatorship which sees any effort to strive for democracy as a
secessionist threat to its rule,” they said.
Members of Hong Kong’s legal
community are also aghast, with many viewing Beijing’s actions as a severe blow
to the former colony’s judiciary.
Pro-democracy groups took out prominent
advertisements in local newspaperson Tuesday morning that read:
“Beijing destroys the rule of law – Hong Kong is a world city no more.”
By the afternoon, hundreds of
members of the former colony’s legal community and other demonstrators had
gathered outside the high court to begin their silent march.
“The legal sector has to come
out and express our discontent and that we oppose this,” said Margaret Ng, a
prominent local barrister.
“If the legal sector does not
come out and protest then it will mean that we have accepted it. We will never
accept this – not even for the 100th time.”
Lee Cheuk-yan, a veteran
labour and democracy activist, said that having deprived Hong
Kong’s citizens of genuine democracy in 2014, Beijing was now seeking to
strip them of the right to criticise the Communist party or freely elect their
own representatives to the city’s parliament.
On Monday, the British Foreign
Office expressed concern about the political crisis in a brief and cautiously
worded statement.
Lu Kang, a spokesperson for
China’s foreign ministry, responded on Tuesday, urging the British government
to “be cautious with its words and deeds, to refrain from interfering in Hong
Kong’s affairs and to offer no support to Hong Kong independence forces”.
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