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It basically says if you are found “unpatriotic” - things that are disliked by the powers that be in Beijing - you’re out. The order, essentially, is the final, the very ultimate crackdown on Hong Kong’s opposition. This was under a new rule passed by Beijing targeting “unpatriotic” lawmakers, is that right? Claudia Mo I guess a good place to start would be the news that four pro-democracy legislators were ousted from the Legislative Council last week. Our conversation, edited for length and clarity, is below. She explained the decision, what this means for Hong Kong, and why she and others are still fighting against increasingly impossible odds. I spoke to Claudia Mo, one of the pro-democracy legislators who resigned in protest. Their absence now removes any doubt about what the Hong Kong government has become: another rubber stamp for Beijing’s agenda. The pro-democracy camp had already been the minority in the LegCo it could filibuster and delay but ultimately couldn’t block any legislation. And now China has taken yet another step, targeting lawmakers who oppose Beijing from their elected positions. The law, along with pandemic restrictions, has chilled the protests. Ultimately, the national security law achieved what Beijing wanted: accelerating China’s control of Hong Kong. Many inside and outside Hong Kong saw the national security law as a “death sentence” for “one country, two systems” - the principle that grants Hong Kong a degree of autonomy and democratic freedom until 2047. That was a direct response to a year of massive pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which China saw as a threat to its power.
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The battle in the Legislative Council, or LegCo, comes just months after China imposed a stifling national security law that gave Beijing sweeping powers to crack down on dissent in Hong Kong under the broad categories of “secession, subversion, organization and perpetration of terrorist activities, and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security.” Which is why the remaining pro-democracy camp all walked out: better to stand in solidarity than to be picked off and disqualified, one by one. It was the latest attempt by the Chinese government to crush the pro-democracy opposition, this time directly within Hong Kong’s political structures. The Hong Kong government quickly expelled four members of the legislature under the new rule: Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki, and Kenneth Leung. The protest came after the Chinese government passed a new law that would disqualify legislators for “unpatriotic” behavior - things like supporting Hong Kong’s independence or colluding with foreign powers. The pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council resigned en masse last week, a powerful show of solidarity against Beijing’s latest intervention in the territory.
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