Localist Hong Kong lawmaker faces charges for turning flags upside down in Legco chamber

Civic Passion’s Cheng Chung-tai summoned by police under laws barring desecration of national and Hong Kong flags

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Legislator Cheng Chung-tai turns national and Hong Kong flags upside down. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 8:32pm, 10 Apr 2017Updated: 9:57pm, 10 Apr 2017

Localist lawmaker Cheng Chung-tai faces charges of desecrating the national and Hong Kong flags after he turned those displayed by pro-Beijing colleagues upside down in the Legislative Council chamber last year.

Cheng called the move part of a “purge” before the administration changes hands in July after two winning pro-independence candidates were unseated and the government sought the disqualification of four pan-democrats over the way they took their Legco oaths.

Civic Passion’s lone representative in Legco said his assistant received a phone call from police on Monday informing him about the decision to prosecute Cheng.

“I’m not surprised,” Cheng said. “Leung Chun-ying is leaving soon and he has made Hong Kong’s judicial system and rule of law look ridiculous. ”

On October 19 last year, Cheng upended the small national and Hong Kong flags that lawmakers from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong had displayed on their desks.

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