Amid uproar, Hong Kong government backs down after barring questions from lawmakers facing review
Financial Secretary John Tsang refuses to take queries from the four in Legco meeting ... then the government does a U-turn under pressure from all sides
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah stunned a Legislative Council panel meeting in the morning by announcing that he would not answer questions from “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Edward Yiu Chung-yim and Lau Siu-lai, citing advice from government lawyers to doubt their status as legislators.
Watch: John Tsang refuses to take queries from four lawmakers
That drew objections and concerns from across the political spectrum, as the High Court had not even started hearing the government’s case to have the four booted out of Legco.
Some pan-democrats accused Tsang of overstepping his bounds to impress Beijing, following his earlier hint that he might run for the city’s top job.
However, the government reversed its stance in the afternoon when even its allies in the legislature questioned the justification for shunning the four.
“The administration will address inquiries from all lawmakers without changing its legal stance over the four lawmakers,” Legco’s house committee chairwoman Starry Lee Wai-king quoted Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor as saying after meeting the No 2 official.