US condemns unseating of opposition legislators in Hong Kong
- ‘One country, two systems is now merely a fig leaf covering for the CCP’s expanding one party dictatorship in Hong Kong,’ says Robert O’Brien
- Beijing has ‘flagrantly violated’ its commitments to Hong Kong, according to statement
The Chinese Communist Party “flagrantly violated” its commitments to Hong Kong when it disqualified four opposition lawmakers from the city’s legislature, US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said on Wednesday.
“‘One country, two systems’ is now merely a fig leaf covering for the CCP’s expanding one party dictatorship in Hong Kong,” O’Brien said in a statement.
The US condemnation came after China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the country’s top legislative body, empowered the local government in Hong Kong to unseat politicians without having to go through the city’s courts.
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Hong Kong opposition lawmakers to resign en masse over Legislative Council disqualifications
Four opposition lawmakers were removed, and the remaining 15 opposition lawmakers said they would all resign in protest.
O’Brien added that the US government would use its powers under the law to continue to “identify and sanction those responsible for extinguishing Hong Kong’s freedom”.
The Trump administration imposed economic sanctions on a number of Chinese officials including Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, in August. On Monday, Washington increased the list of targeted individuals to include four additional officials in the central and Hong Kong governments.
Those sanctions have come as a united US Congress has called for a stronger American response to Beijing’s perceived encroachment of civil liberties in Hong Kong, including calls for the US to provide asylum to those seeking to flee the city.