The collective resignation of Hong Kong opposition legislators is not only a betrayal of public interest, but a flagrant challenge to the central government’s jurisdiction over the city, the top central government institution overseeing Hong Kong and Macao affairs said on Thursday.
The remarks in a statement by the Hong Kong and Macao Office of the State Council came the day after 15 Hong Kong opposition lawmakers announced they were stepping down. The resignations followed the special administrative region government’s ousting of four lawmakers based on a resolution that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s top legislature, passed on Wednesday.
The remarks in a statement by the Hong Kong and Macao Office of the State Council came the day after 15 Hong Kong opposition lawmakers announced they were stepping down
The resolution made it clear that lawmakers must be removed from their seats or barred from running for the Legislative Council if they advocate separatism, breach their oath of allegiance to serve the SAR, seek external intervention in Hong Kong’s affairs, or commit other acts that endanger national security. The decision also applies to those who were disqualified from contending for the now-delayed LegCo election, which was originally scheduled for Sept 6.
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The NPCSC decision was meant to maintain the rule of law and constitutional order of the SAR and will benefit the orderly function of the legislature and social stability, but some opposition lawmakers smeared it as a political crackdown and resigned to protest the move, a spokesperson of the HKMAO said.
The farce fully exposes the opposition’s goal to pursue personal political interests while disregarding the public interest, and in fact, opposition lawmakers are challenging the central authorities’ overall jurisdiction over the HKSAR by challenging the NPCSC decision and the Basic Law, the spokesperson continued.
The spokesperson warned that it is a miscalculated attempt to instigate confrontation and seek external forces’ interference to drag Hong Kong into chaos, as the central government and HKSAR government will firmly safeguard the city’s stability.
The spokesperson said the opposition bloc’s move will not affect the legislature’s normal operations, and called on the other lawmakers to be active in efforts to control the pandemic, revive the economy and improve people’s livelihoods.
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A spokesperson of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the HKSAR echoed those sentiments, saying that what the opposition lawmakers have done will definitely hurt their political futures, but not the implementation of the “one country, two systems” principle in Hong Kong.
The spokesperson also said that the opposition camp’s attitude on whether their legislators should stay in office has been inconsistent ever since the NPCSC decided to extend the six-term legislature for at least one year.
In August and September, the opposition camp declared that the decision on whether their lawmakers should remain in office should be based on public polls, and announced they would stay in LegCo because of “public support” for the option in a poll. But their resignations were not based on any polls, the spokesperson said.
In fact, the move showed that they didn’t take their duties seriously and are not responsible to the public. Their resignations have betrayed the voters, the spokesperson said.
The requirement that politicians have political loyalty is a basic value shared by the international community. Loving the nation and the city is a political ethic that Hong Kong politicians should have, and also the fundamental requirement of the Constitution and the Basic Law, the spokesperson said.
After the return of Hong Kong, the central government pledged to unite all parties to jointly implement the “one country, two systems” principle. Thus, opposition candidates have always been able to become members of LegCo and other political institutions via legal means and contribute to the society, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson cited Western politics’ concept of the “loyal opposition”, which is loyal to the current constitutional institution and offers constructive criticism but would never betray the nation. This is the accepted norm, the spokesperson said.
Yet a handful of Hong Kong lawmakers have broken their promises to be loyal to the political system. They even wantonly disrupted the system’s constitutional order and plotted to paralyze the government by colluding with external forces. Such acts have crossed the political bottom line, the spokesperson warned.
