First two, now 15 Hong Kong lawmakers face prospect of being expelled from Legislative Council

Wang Zhenmin comments on legislators ‘messing up’ their oaths, while former Beijing official lambasts prosecution and judiciary for failing to live up to people’s expectations

Reading Time:3 minutes

Basic Law Committee member Rao Geping, former deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Chen Zuoer and former Hong Kong government think tank head Lau Siu-kai at the seminar in Shenzhen. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 1:30pm, 9 Nov 2016Updated: 4:31pm, 10 Nov 2016

From just two, now up to 15 Hong Kong lawmakers could be at risk of losing their seats after two Beijing spokesmen catalogued eight types of “insincere oath-taking” and delivered a stinging rebuke against the city’s legal officials.

The warning came two days after China’s top legislative body intervened in the city’s legislative oath row in a move hailed by pro-establishment politicians but criticised by the legal profession as a challenge to the city’s judicial independence.

At a seminar in Shenzhen, Chen Zuoer, former deputy director of Beijing’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, lambasted the city’s prosecution and judiciary, accusing them of “not living up to people’s expectations” in defending breaches of national security and making it “almost cost-free to oppose and commit crime against Beijing.”

Asked to elaborate later, he said: “There were a lot of cases in the last two or three years. From the storming of the PLA barracks, to the Occupy protests, the Mong Kok riots, there were a series of such cases.”

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x