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On Reddit there are some pretty intense videos and other first-hand accounts of democratic-leaning lawmakers in Hong Kong being forcibly removed from government

On Reddit there are some pretty intense videos and other first-hand accounts of democratic-leaning lawmakers in Hong Kong being forcibly removed from government buildings. I’m surprised this isn’t getting more press. But also it’s pretty clear China is doing this now during coronavirus since the world has bigger things to care about at the moment

hker 6y ago
A news reporting [1] and video [2] of the incident. [1]: https://hongkongfp.com/2020/05/08/shocking-unlawful-illegitimate-hong-kong-democrats-angered-after-pro-beijing-lawmaker-asserts-control-of-committee/ https://hongkongfp.com/2020/05/08/shocking-unlawful-illegiti... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zxtYUFl5Hg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zxtYUFl5Hg
woutr_be 6y ago
Some background on why this is happening; The legislature was supposed to elect a new chairman in October last year, pan-democratic lawmakers have been blocking this election by filibustering any meeting that tried to elect a new chairman. The goal was to block this until the elections in September this year. About a month ago, China spoke out against this, and since then, the legislature has been trying to push this through. Evicted lawmakers tried to physical prevent this from happening, which is why they were removed from the room. I don't really agree with the actions of both parties, but this is the back story. They weren't just forcefully removed out of nowhere, there were actions that led up to it.
- av_engr 6y ago
  From my understanding, they were filibustering because a pro-china legislator was the former chairwomen of the internal committee (a group that review policies before submitted to vote in general legislature), and for her to be re-elected, she must resign first. Then pro-china party realized their fuck up and caused a whole drama. According to the rulebook, the vice chairman (pan-democratic) is supposed to hold the meeting till new chair is elected. The democratic legislators saw this as a chance to filibuster because pro-china legislator had an agenda to push for establishing the National Anthem Act. In this case, the filibuster forces the pro-china party into a losing situation. The resolution was that the pro-china legislators seek "legal advice" from some government legal counselor and directly broke the filibuster by having the general legislature chairman (pro-china) appoint a new "chairman"(who happens to be pro-china) to hold the new election. Of course, this is highly illegal, but it went through anyways. Ultimately, it led to democratic legislator surrounding chairman podium and protesting the illegal filibuster breaking, which resulted in being forcefully removed from the legislature hall.
  - woutr_be 6y ago
    I’m unsure about the first past, as far as I understood it, they wanted to prevent the election of a new chairman until the next elections. Mostly because in the current legislature the pan-democrats don’t hold a majority, which is expected to change in September. So they wanted to prevent new laws (like the national anthem law) to be pushed through The last part is difficult, both sides sought legal advice, both were contradicting each other. Eventually the pro-China side pushed through with their advice, which resulted in clashes and eventually the eviction of pan-democracts. All in all; it’s an absolute mess, and not expected to get any better. China is already circumventing the HK government by pushing for a national security law. (Which was supposed to be implemented over the past 23 years)
    - av_engr 6y ago
      Anyways, totally agree on your last part of the comment. China is for sure showing no patient and will value its political stability over any economic benefit reaped from HK. In fact, while listening to the press conference of the pro-china party right now on National security law, they just said it: "compared to safety of the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens, stock market drop is insignificant". To me it sounds like that China has dropped the axes, HKers better be quiet.
      - woutr_be 6y ago
        I'm trying to remain subjective, especially when giving information to other people, but this is just my understanding of what happened. It's really hard to find unbiased information, especially when reading local news.
    - ksec 6y ago
      >The last part is difficult, both sides sought legal advice, both were contradicting each other. Eventually the pro-China side pushed through with their advice, which resulted in clashes and eventually the eviction of pan-democracts. Actually the legal advice from Government ( Which in the past 10-15 years has always been Pro-China ) on the issue was that the Pro-Democrats were right as it was listed very clearly by the rules. That there was no way "reinterpret" it. It was a surprise to the Pro-China party so they sort to external legal advice and suggest or basically completely changed the rule. Is was at that moment, Hong Kong is officially Rule by Law and not Rule of Law. And yes that is why the later part was an absolute mess. People were planning to protest about it anyway, but before anything was planned the new security law happened.

hker 6y ago

A news reporting [1] and video [2] of the incident. [1]: https://hongkongfp.com/2020/05/08/shocking-unlawful-illegitimate-hong-kong-democrats-angered-after-pro-beijing-lawmaker-asserts-control-of-committee/ https://hongkongfp.com/2020/05/08/shocking-unlawful-illegiti... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zxtYUFl5Hg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zxtYUFl5Hg

woutr_be 6y ago

Some background on why this is happening; The legislature was supposed to elect a new chairman in October last year, pan-democratic lawmakers have been blocking this election by filibustering any meeting that tried to elect a new chairman. The goal was to block this until the elections in September this year. About a month ago, China spoke out against this, and since then, the legislature has been trying to push this through. Evicted lawmakers tried to physical prevent this from happening, which is why they were removed from the room. I don't really agree with the actions of both parties, but this is the back story. They weren't just forcefully removed out of nowhere, there were actions that led up to it.

av_engr 6y ago
From my understanding, they were filibustering because a pro-china legislator was the former chairwomen of the internal committee (a group that review policies before submitted to vote in general legislature), and for her to be re-elected, she must resign first. Then pro-china party realized their fuck up and caused a whole drama. According to the rulebook, the vice chairman (pan-democratic) is supposed to hold the meeting till new chair is elected. The democratic legislators saw this as a chance to filibuster because pro-china legislator had an agenda to push for establishing the National Anthem Act. In this case, the filibuster forces the pro-china party into a losing situation. The resolution was that the pro-china legislators seek "legal advice" from some government legal counselor and directly broke the filibuster by having the general legislature chairman (pro-china) appoint a new "chairman"(who happens to be pro-china) to hold the new election. Of course, this is highly illegal, but it went through anyways. Ultimately, it led to democratic legislator surrounding chairman podium and protesting the illegal filibuster breaking, which resulted in being forcefully removed from the legislature hall.
- woutr_be 6y ago
  I’m unsure about the first past, as far as I understood it, they wanted to prevent the election of a new chairman until the next elections. Mostly because in the current legislature the pan-democrats don’t hold a majority, which is expected to change in September. So they wanted to prevent new laws (like the national anthem law) to be pushed through The last part is difficult, both sides sought legal advice, both were contradicting each other. Eventually the pro-China side pushed through with their advice, which resulted in clashes and eventually the eviction of pan-democracts. All in all; it’s an absolute mess, and not expected to get any better. China is already circumventing the HK government by pushing for a national security law. (Which was supposed to be implemented over the past 23 years)
  - av_engr 6y ago
    Anyways, totally agree on your last part of the comment. China is for sure showing no patient and will value its political stability over any economic benefit reaped from HK. In fact, while listening to the press conference of the pro-china party right now on National security law, they just said it: "compared to safety of the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens, stock market drop is insignificant". To me it sounds like that China has dropped the axes, HKers better be quiet.
    - woutr_be 6y ago
      I'm trying to remain subjective, especially when giving information to other people, but this is just my understanding of what happened. It's really hard to find unbiased information, especially when reading local news.
  - ksec 6y ago
    >The last part is difficult, both sides sought legal advice, both were contradicting each other. Eventually the pro-China side pushed through with their advice, which resulted in clashes and eventually the eviction of pan-democracts. Actually the legal advice from Government ( Which in the past 10-15 years has always been Pro-China ) on the issue was that the Pro-Democrats were right as it was listed very clearly by the rules. That there was no way "reinterpret" it. It was a surprise to the Pro-China party so they sort to external legal advice and suggest or basically completely changed the rule. Is was at that moment, Hong Kong is officially Rule by Law and not Rule of Law. And yes that is why the later part was an absolute mess. People were planning to protest about it anyway, but before anything was planned the new security law happened.