All Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmakers to resign as China crushes opposition

Hong Kong’s pro-democracy lawmakers said Wednesday they would all quit in protest at the ousting of four of their colleagues who were judged a threat to national security by authoritarian Beijing, reports AFP.

The resignations will reduce the semi-autonomous city’s once-feisty legislature to a gathering of Chinese central government loyalists, effectively ending pluralism in the chamber.

They also mark another blow to Hong Kong’s beleaguered pro-democracy movement, which has been under sustained attack since China imposed a sweeping national security law, including arrests for social media posts and activists fleeing overseas.

“We, from the pro-democracy camp, will stand with our colleagues,” Wu Chi-wai, convener of the 15 remaining pro-democracy legislators, told a press conference.

“We will resign en masse.”

Earlier Wednesday, Hong Kong authorities ousted the four members minutes after one of China’s top lawmaking committees ruled the city’s government could remove any legislator deemed a threat to national security without going through the courts.

Hong Kong’s leader is chosen by pro-Beijing committees, but half of its legislature’s 70 seats are directly elected, offering the city’s 7.5 million residents a rare chance to have their voices heard at the ballot box.

Scuffles and protests routinely break out, with the pro-democracy minority often resorting to filibustering, chanting and obstruction to try to halt bills they oppose.

At Wednesday’s press conference the pro-democracy camp joined hands in solidarity and shouted “Hong Kong add oil!” — a popular slogan during months of huge and often violent protests that rocked the financial hub last year.

China passed the sweeping security law in June to quell the protests, describing it as a “sword” hanging over the heads of its critics.