Two localist lawmakers urged Hong Kong to ‘insulate’ itself from the mainland at Taipei seminar
But call from Hong Kong’s Youngspiration duo may only further anger Beijing
Two localist lawmakers who had their swearing-in oaths for the Legislative Council invalidated called on Saturday for Hong Kong to “insulate” itself from the mainland.
Although they stopped short of openly advocating independence for Hong Kong at a seminar in Taipei, the latest comments by Youngspiration’s Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching could further antagonise Beijing. China’s leaders are wary of any “collusion” between separatist forces in Hong Kong, Taiwan and even Tibet and Xinjiang.
The pair ignored warnings by leading Beijing loyalists that the Taiwan trip was “making matters worse”.
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, the city’s only delegate to the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, warned that Beijing might back a trusted candidate for next year’s chief executive election regardless of his or her unpopularity, if independence talk continued to gather steam.
That was seen as a reference to incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, although she did not specify.
“The central government has considered Leung trustworthy since the Occupy movement [in 2014],” she said.
Baggio Leung and Yau said they accepted the invitation to attend the Taipei forum on Hong Kong’s localist movement before they took their oaths on Oct 12, when they offended Chinese sentiment by referring to the city as a “nation” and held up banners stating: “Hong Kong is not China.”
“We also met a few friends here but we had no party-to-party level meetings,” Leung said, adding that he did not meet the island’s pro-independence New Power Party or ruling Democratic Progressive Party .
The event they attended was organised by the Graduate Student Association of the National Taiwan University, and was attended by about 60 university students and reporters.
While the two were relatively cautious with their remarks, Ray Wong Toi-yeung from localist group Hong Kong Indigenous, who spoke alongside them, declared that independence was the only solution for Hong Kong.
“If the seeds of separatism can be planted in mainland China … the communist regime could be overthrown sooner,” he said, adding that it would help if other mainland provinces would also start discussing independence.
Fan warned that their Taiwan trip would “make the situation even worse”. She made it clear she did not wish to see Leung and Yau assume office as legislators after their behaviour in Legco.
In a television interview on Saturday, executive councillor Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee also warned that Beijing could issue a white paper stating what constituted secession before local courts ruled on the government-initiated judicial review of Legco president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen’s decision to allow the duo to retake their oaths.
Baggio Leung said this would again highlight how Beijing could “bend the rules whenever the outcome is unfavourable” under the “one country, two systems” policy of governing Hong Kong.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said on Friday that it would closely monitor the controversy sparked by Yau and Leung’s oath-taking, and urged the Hong Kong government to safeguard the city’s autonomy.
The Hong Kong government responded by telling Taiwan to stay out of the city’s internal affairs.
