“If this move takes place, one country, two systems will be officially erased.” — Unrest in Hong Kong Heats Up After a Series of Controversies
By: Will Reynolds
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Louisville — After recent moves by Beijing to increase holistic control, a fight broke out in a Hong Kong legislative committee meeting, ending with the removal of ten pro-democracy lawmakers. Two were hospitalized for their injuries.
Before the beginning of Hong Kong’s legislative council meeting this past Friday, lawmakers from both the pro-Beijing and pro-democracy rushed to man the long-contested committee chairperson seat.
Pro-Beijing lawmaker and incumbent chairwoman Starry Lee reached the podium first, and with the help of approximately two dozen security guards, fought off attempts by pro-democratic leaders to remove her from the stand.
While many in the opposition party chanted, “Step down Starry Lee!”, Lee ordered all pro-democracy lawmakers expelled from the chambers. Democratic legislator Ray Chan could be seen on the outskirts of the scuffle being forcefully dragged by his shirt collar by pro-Beijing rival Kwok Wai-keung. Chan described the incident as an “unprovoked and violent assault” in a subsequent Twitter post from the ER.
The Hong Kong Legislative Council’s House Committee is responsible for vetting bills before they are sent to a final vote. However, little has been accomplished in recent meetings of the committee.
Because of Beijing lawmakers’ majority of 42 to the democracy camp’s 27, the minority coalition had been utilizing filibuster tactics to delay the re-election of incumbent chairwoman Lee, to call for her to withdraw from the race, and to keep the pro-Beijing camp from seizing total power in the committee.
In response, Lee made her intention known that she will be remaining on the ballot, and following the removal of all pro-democracy lawmakers from the committee meeting, promptly re-elected herself as committee chair and took time to condemn the opposition’s actions. Lee also hoped to push forward a highly controversial bill which would criminalize all abuse of the Chinese national anthem.
This altercation occurred less than a month after Hong Kong police arrested more than a dozen prominent pro-democracy figures due to their connection to this past year’s protests.
The protests brought China’s control of the territory into question. However, even as protests continued for more than a year, Beijing showed restraint in responding to the demonstrations, and after a considerable time, seems to have taken their first step in attempt to officially reassert dominance in the territory.
Beijing this week also announced the introduction of a new national security law to the National’s People’s Congress which, according to Hong Kong media, would ban all acts of secession, protest, or terrorism with the intention of undermining the rule of the central government. While the fight between legislators did spark small protests late Friday outside of the chambers, many believe that the announcement of this measure will reignite the fire beneath the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Dennis Kwok stated in response to the proposed law that, “If this move takes place, ‘one country, two systems’ will be officially erased.”
Under the original treaty negotiated between Great Britain and China to hand Hong Kong back over to Chinese control in 1997, China agreed not to interfere with the “capitalist system and way of life” unique to the territory, however, after a year of widespread unrest, Beijing seems to hold no qualms in undertaking every measure possible to reassert control in Hong Kong no matter the criticisms.
But the pro-democracy movement remains strong in the face of strong opposition. Despite harsh crackdowns on protests, the arrests of some of the most prominent pro-democracy leaders, and the proposal of the harshest changes to Hong Kong’s code of law in recent history, protestors have begun to take to the streets en masse.