Kill bill: Hong Kong government minister hits out at pan-democrats over copyright bill filibuster

After a decade of consultation, drafting and debate, the contentious copyright bill will be shelved on Friday as the commerce minister on Thursday night called all pan-democrats “killers” of the draft legislation.

Tabling a motion of adjournment less than an hour before the session ended at 8pm, People Power lawmaker Raymond Chan Chi-chuen effectively preempted Secretary for Commerce and Economic

READ MORE: Hong Kong government’s shelving of controversial copyright bill: what went wrong?

Development Greg So Kam-leung, who had vowed to “let go” of the legislative process on Friday.

While Chan said it was time to wrap up the meeting, So hit out at Chan and everyone else in the pan-democratic camp. “Actually you [Chan] need not be afraid of tabling this motion. Although you’ll be the killer, all the pan-democrats are collectively killers,” he said.

Several pro-establishment lawmakers expressed anger at So’s “procrastination”, saying he should have tabled the adjournment motion on Thursday rather than leave it to Chan.

Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee, also an executive councillor, said she would not sit in the chamber throughout the day and would leave for a dinner banquet, adding: “Legco has been turned into a funeral hall. Why should I sit with a corpse?”

Another veteran lawmaker who refused to be named complained: “We are forced to linger in Legco simply because he allowed the filibuster to go on while he could have terminated it.”

But So insisted on tabling the motion on Friday and refrained from doing it on Thursday, even after Chan pressed him twice to do it.

READ MORE: Hong Kong copyright bill debate enters final 48 hours after latest compromise bid fails

“Time is running out and there is no chance for it to come to a vote,” Chan said at 6.30pm, an hour and a half before the session finished. “I’m giving you one last chance to table the motion tonight.”

So did not comment on why he did not move the motion on Thursday, leaving a mere four-hour session on Friday to deal with the adjournment motion.

He would only say that copyright owners had “not dictated” things to the government, amid criticism that he had refused to adopt pan-democrat amendments opposed by owners’ groups.

So said the government could not turn a blind eye to other policy areas.

One of the imminent priorities for the government is a vote on an interim budget allocation pending approval of the fiscal blueprint. Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Thursday wrote to Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing demanding that the resolution be placed first on the agenda for the next Legco meeting on March 16.