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Under threat of jail and bankruptcy, Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching discuss future of Hong Kong pro-independence movement
In interview given before their conviction for illegal assembly, ousted lawmakers say they cannot be blamed for Beijing’s tightening grip on city
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It has been more than a year since localists Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching were booted from the city’s Legislative Council, but even after returning to their regular jobs, they continue to elicit angry glares and curious glances when they walk down the street.
The defiant pair notably drew Beijing’s ire in 2016, when they held aloft banners during their Legco swearing-in ceremony declaring “Hong Kong is not part of China”.
The incident prompted fears their offensive gestures would open a Pandora’s box and caused the central government to further tighten its grip on Hong Kong.
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Earlier this year, student activist Agnes Chow Ting, a comrade of Occupy movement poster boy Joshua Wong Chi-fung, was banned from the Legco by-election in March to fill four of the six vacancies left by Leung, Yau and four other lawmakers.
This happened despite her party Demosisto endorsing “self-determination”, a milder political stance than advocating outright independence for the city.
The position had appeared to sit well with Beijing two years ago when Chow’s peer and party chairman, Nathan Law Kwun-chung, was allowed to run for a seat on the legislature alongside Leung and Yau.
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