Hong Kong localist radicals played into Beijing’s hands, democracy leader Martin Lee says
Disrespectful oath-taking gave mainland officials a good excuse to rewrite the Basic Law, thereby ‘destroying’ city’s ‘one country, two systems’ formula
The antics of two localists during the Legislative Council swearing-in ceremony last month gave Beijing a good excuse to undermine the “one country, two systems” formula, a former Basic Law drafter said on Thursday.
Martin Lee Chu-ming SC, founding chairman of the Democratic Party, said he had suspicions about the actions of Youngspiration lawmakers-elect Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching, who were disqualified by the High Court on Tuesday.
Speaking after a Commercial Radio programme, Lee said the Hong Kong government and Beijing could point to Leung and Yau and say “not only do they want independence, they were insulting the people of China. Of course we should get rid of them”.
“Then they have become good excuses for Beijing not only to attack them, because they could be removed anyway by the judge even without the interpretation, but making life very difficult for so many of us and in fact destroying ‘one country, two systems’, giving them the excuse of doing so,” Lee said on Thursday.