Beijing is set to step into a controversy over whether two Hong Kong lawmakers who advocate a split from China should be banned from taking up their seats, authorities in the special autonomous region said yesterday.
The announcement comes a day after a court hearing in which Hong Kong authorities were seeking to disqualify Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching from the Legislative Council (Legco) after they made invalid oaths, amid widespread fears that China is tightening its grip on the city.
China’s top legislative body will at its next meeting discuss the law which states that council members must swear allegiance to the “Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China”, the government said it had been told by Beijing.
Local media reports said China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) could issue an “interpretation” of Hong Kong’s constitution on Monday in relation to the case.
“The interpretation of the NPCSC brings a lethal blow to the legal system and the rule of law in Hong Kong,” lawmaker Leung told reporters after the announcement.
Leung also branded the leader of the city and the chairman of the NPCSC “traitors to Hong Kong”.
Yau and Leung won seats in city-wide polls last month, in which a number of new lawmakers advocating self-determination or independence swept to victory.
They are yet to be sworn into the Legco, after their first oath attempt last month was declared invalid when they draped themselves in “Hong Kong is not China” banners and altered the wording of their pledges to include derogatory terms and expletives.
At Thursday’s court hearing, government lawyer Benjamin Yu argued that Leung and Yau should not be allowed to take up their seats because they failed to swear allegiance to Hong Kong as an “inalienable part of China” at the oath-taking ceremony three weeks ago.
But lawyers for Yau and Leung said the Legco should be able to make an independent decision about their oath.
The judge for the case said he would hand down his judgment as soon as possible.
“I believe the main reason is about the unity of the country and territorial integrity,” pro-establishment figure Maria Tam, a member of the Basic Law Committee, told reporters in China yesterday as explanation of Beijing’s decision to examine the Hong Kong law.
Tam said the NPCSC had asked for the Basic Law Committee’s view on the matter.
The Legco descended into chaos for the third consecutive week on Wednesday after Yau and Baggio tried to force their way into the chamber to take their oaths, having been temporarily barred pending the judicial review.
Six security staff were injured during the clashes.