[Beijing is paving the path to disqualify all 70 LegCo councillors if 35 or more are Pro-Democrats] 1/Towards the end of Easter holiday, HKMAO of the State Council unexpectedly released a statement alleging the misconduct of Legislators in public office.https://telegra.ph/Beijing-is-paving-the-path-to-disqualify-all-70-LegCo-councillors-if-35-or-more-are-Pro-Democrats-04-29 …
-
Show this thread
-
2/ Frankly speaking, interference in LegCo’s internal functions by the political organs of the CCP is not news to Hong Kong in 2020. Even if it violates Article 22 of the Basic Law, it is ironically no longer news to a certain extent.
2 replies 95 retweets 219 likesShow this thread -
3/ People mainly focused on crimes of "misconduct in public office". But I think they missed a very important - or possibly the most important - point, which is found between the lines of HKMAO's statement criticising Legislators for violating their oath.
1 reply 88 retweets 188 likesShow this thread -
4/ It directly questions the councillors' legitimacy and is an obvious attempt to pave the way to their disqualification. This is the key! I remember last year, during the extradition bill's quarrelsome twin committees fiasco*, the HKMAO had yet to make such accusations.
1 reply 86 retweets 189 likesShow this thread -
5/ Even when Pan-dem continued to host a committee meeting that the regime considered illegal, the act was not questioned as a violation of oath. It's obvious that State Council chose to mention this not even half year before the election to pave the way for forced intervention.
1 reply 82 retweets 185 likesShow this thread -
6/ They plan to disqualify councillors for not fulfilling their oath. Should the pro-democracy camp manage to take more than half the seats in in this September's LegCo election, the pro-Beijing camp will claim that a "constitutional crisis" is triggered.
1 reply 90 retweets 188 likesShow this thread -
7/ Even though nothing explicit has been stated, I will make this tactical prediction - if the pro-democracy camp is able to take over half of the council seats, and gets to veto one bill after another while Beijing sits idly by, then I will definitely be glad to bear witness.
2 replies 84 retweets 181 likesShow this thread -
8/ It's obvious though based on events in the past four years, any hope that Beijing will follow the rules and allow the Pan-dem run LegCo properly will be dashed. We have to prepare for the worst.
1 reply 85 retweets 180 likesShow this thread -
9/ I believe a more likely scenario will be this - around the time of next year's budget release, Beijing will directly take control of the existing LegCo, disqualifying all 70 lawmakers. They may refer to the dissolution of the pro-democrat dominated LegCo in 1997 as an example.
2 replies 89 retweets 181 likesShow this thread -
10/ (That's right, LegCo had a pro-democrat majority during 1995-1997.) They can outright establish a "Provisional LegCo 2.0" and appoint councillors to hold meetings in Shenzhen. This does not require a wild imagination. Wilder things have happened in Hong Kong in the past year.
1 reply 85 retweets 182 likesShow this thread
11/ HKMAO's statement is a reminder for HKers to be vigilant & prepared. Of course, we must strive to get more than half the seats! But even if we succeed in achieving this miracle, the regime may still use ever more creative ways - like oath violations - to unseat Legislators.
-
-
12/ This is why I wrote "Fight at any cost internationally", linking existing LegCo's survival with survival of HK's separate status as a tax haven. On the chessboard of international politics, only with a tight grasp of regime's weaknesses do we stand a chance against Beijing.
16 replies 109 retweets 253 likesShow this threadThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.