Hong Kong separatist lawmakers remain barred from legislature

Two separatist lawmakers blocked from taking the Hong Kong legislature’s oath of office, because they insisted on changing it, lost an appeal  and remained blocked from joining the body.

A Hong Kong appeals court upheld a previous decision to bar Yau Wai-ching and Sixtus Leung from joining the city’s Legislature, seeming to affirm China’s right to interpret the Basic Law of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution and bar them both from office.

Although Hong Kong has the right to self-rule through at least 2024, as stipulated in Britain’s return of the city-state to China, whether Hong Kong should remain independent or eventually join China in the long-term is controversial among residents there.

Yau and Leung were elected to the legislature in September and were among five separatists who changed the oath to reflect their belief Hong Kong should remain independent from China — which many regard as having a slim chance of happening. Changes the duo made to the oath included a derogatory reference to China and laying out a banner declaring “Hong Kong is not China” during the ceremony.

Three of the five other lawmakers were eventually permitted to retake their oaths, but Yau and Leung were not because they insisted they would change the words, and later ran into the legislative chamber –on two separate occasions — to try to take the oath. They failed on both attempts because legislators ended the session before they could complete their oaths or they were removed from the chamber before doing so.

The decision made by China, before the appeals court even heard the case, was that Basic Law requires someone taking the oath to be both “sincere” and “solemn,” and not doing so disqualifies a person from serving in the legislature.