Hong Kong faces new political turmoil

HONG KONG’S Legislative Council, or Legco, has descended into chaos over how members should take their oaths of office after elections in September. Pro-establishment lawmakers dominate the 70-member chamber, thanks to a voting system skewed towards those who support the government and the Communist Party in Beijing. Despite that, voters elected half a dozen candidates who want Hong Kong to be more independent—some even favour outright separation from China. At their oath-taking two members of a new party, Youngspiration, pledged allegiance to “the Hong Kong nation”, used the imperial Japanese pronunciation of “China”, and displayed a banner declaring that “Hong Kong is not China”. The theatrics by Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching at times seemed puerile. On November 7th the central government made clear that it was in no mood for farce. Its rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC), issued a ruling aimed at barring Mr Leung and Ms Yau from Legco (see ). Few doubt that the NPC will get its way. Other independence-leaning lawmakers may also be ejected.The intervention has angered many in Hong Kong. Though the NPC oversees the territory’s constitution, its rulings were always intended as a last resort in a place that was promised “a high degree of autonomy” on its reversion from British rule to China in 1997. In this instance, Hong Kong’s own judiciary had just begun hearing a case brought by the territory’s government aimed at disqualifying the two members. Never before have Hong Kong’s courts been pre-empted like this. The ruling undermines the judicial independence that makes the territory so successful as a global financial hub.