Bickering, scuffling and deadlock: Hong Kong’s legislature brings stormy term to a close

Looking back over past four years, politicians on both sides of the aisle admit their relationship has sunk to unprecedented low

Pro-establishment veteran says improvements will only come when society changes, while top democrat argues conflict is resolved when dissenting voices are heard

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Opposition lawmakers pose for a group photo to mark the end of the Legislative Council term, holding out their hands to signal the ‘five demands, not one less’ rallying call of the protest movement. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 10:00am, 18 Jul 2020Updated: 10:00am, 18 Jul 2020

As the clock ticked down to midnight on Friday, Hong Kong lawmakers, according to decades-old tradition, were supposed to put aside political differences, gather in the legislative chamber and wave at the cameras of the assembled media as they brought their four-year terms to an end.

But there was no appetite for the ceremony this time around.

Instead, members of the opposition camp decided to take their own separate group picture. “It is to show us cutting ties with them,” said Claudia Mo Man-ching of the Council Front.

After years of bitter finger-pointing which at times devolved into physical clashes as the city lurched from one crisis to another, the atmosphere in the legislature grew unprecedentedly hostile, according to lawmakers from across the political divide.

Pro-establishment lawmakers pose for the end-of-year photo at Legco. Photo: Dickson Lee

The Legislative Council’s sixth term got off to a poor start. All 70 members joined the session for the swearing-in ceremony in October 2016 but that would be one of the final ones where a full house assembled. The opposition soon suffered its first setback. Among the fresh faces were six localists who rode the momentum of the pro-democracy Occupy movement from two years before and had advocated either Hong Kong independence or self-determination.

The government for the first time mounted a legal challenge to unseat lawmakers – Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching of Youngspiration – after they shouted pro-independence slogans and insulted China during their oath-taking ceremonies that November.