All pro-democracy lawmakers to resign

Hong Kong's pro-democracy lawmakers yesterday said they would all quit in protest at the ousting of four of their colleagues by the city's pro-Beijing authorities. 

The four were disqualified in line with a resolution adopted earlier in the day by China's parliament authorising the local government to expel any politician it deemed a threat to national security.

The resignations will reduce the semi-autonomous city's once-feisty legislature to a gathering of Chinese 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 earlier this year.

"We... 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 just 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.

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

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the move against the lawmakers was "a further assault on Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy and freedoms".

Chris Patten, the city's last colonial governor, also criticised the removals. The disqualified lawmakers were defiant.

"If observing due process, protecting systems and functions and fighting for democracy and human rights would lead to the consequence of being disqualified, it would be my honour," said Dennis Kwok, one of the ousted four.

The quartet had initially been banned from running in the city's legislative elections -- which were scheduled to be held September 6 -- after calling on the United States to impose sanctions on Hong Kong officials.

Those elections were postponed, with authorities blaming the coronavirus.

Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam defended the disqualifications yesterday saying they were "constitutional, legal, reasonable and necessary".