Yet another sad day for Hong Kong as its Legislative Council is turned democrat-free

When this photo was taken three years and four months ago, there were 

Legislative Councillors as well as ousted legislators among them...

 

As of tomorrow though, there'll be just former 

Legislative Councillors in even this wider picture :(

 

This afternoon, lawyer-political commentator Antony Dapiran Tweeted that: "Dammit I am so sick & tired of writing “A sad day for Hong Kong”..."  (https://twitter.com/antd/status/1326424281727832067).  Me too, Antony, me too.  

For the record: Today, Beijing went ahead and disqualified four pro-democracy members of Hong Kong's Legislative Council.  The Hong Kong government announced the disqualification after China's National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) passed a resolution earlier in the day saying that legislators who promote or support Hong Kong independence, refuse to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong, ask external forces to interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs or commit other acts that threaten national security should be disqualified.  

 

The fact that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam openly admitted that she was just the messenger -- or, actually, errand girl -- for Beijing really made clear that "One country, two systems" is dead.  So, really, the question now is: why is she still being paid a salary of over HK$5.21 million (~US$667,680) a year?!

 

As promised just two days ago, the pan-democrat bloc have announced their resignation enmasse from Legislative Council after Beijing moved to (further) disqualify members of their camp.  In so doing, Hong Kong's Legislative Council will become like China's National People's Congress: devoid of a genuine opposition and really just a rubber stamp institution.

Already, there has been international condemnation of Beijing's ousting of Hong Kong's legislators (even as pro-Beijing vultures like Regina Ip sought to heap criticism blame on the pan-democratic camp).  But will real action follow the words?  The answer, I suspect and fear, is: No.  Though, of course, the possibility does exist.

 

This past Monday, Canada's The Globe and Mail published a piece entitled "With 3.4 million nationals in Hong Kong, Canada and allies have more influence than they realize: expert".  The expert in question, is a Hong Kong-born political scientist at the University of London’s SOAS China Institute.  

 

In his testimony before the special Commons committee on Canada-China relations, which is considering how the Canadian government should respond to Beijing’s repressive moves in Hong Kong, Professor Steve Tsang stated the following:-

If you [add up] the Canadians and the [British National (Overseas)] passport holders and the Americans and the Australians and the New Zealanders passport holders together, you are talking about the bulk of Hong Kong’s economic lifeline...

If they all leave Hong Kong because of ... Chinese government policy, [Beijing] will have to think hard about this...

At the moment the Chinese government does not believe any of these governments will stand by their nationals in Hong Kong, who are mostly in fact dual nationals. We have to persuade the Chinese government that yes we really mean it, for them to take it seriously.

...That is one thing that will really get [Beijing] to take notice, more than anything else. Individually none of us will be able to persuade the Chinese government to make any change.

And yes, it's so true that, right now, many of us here in Hong Kong are feeling so helpless as well as bereft; with the only thing we're clinging to now being that we are not alone -- in our misery but also attempt to hope against hope still that all is not lost.  Yet.