Beijing Move Has Left Hong Kong Gasping: Pan-dems

Pro-democracy politicians said on Thursday that the air has gone out of Hong Kong, leaving the city gasping, and warned Beijing’s move to impose a national security law has relegated the SAR to the status of just another mainland city.

Speaking after the National People's Congress voted to impose a new law, the pan-democratic camp in Legco said it marks the end of Hong Kong.

“2,878 people voted on Hong Kong’s future, of those 2,878 people, how many of them have never been to Hong Kong? Or seen the situation in Hong Kong?” asked Civic Party leader Alvin Yeung.

The lawmaker was also critical of Legco president Andrew Leung for earlier coming out to express his support for the decision by the National People’s Congress, even though the move by the NPC means the national security legislation has been taken out of the local legislature’s hands.

HK First legislator Claudia Mo said “this marks the beginning of a sad and traumatising era for Hong Kong”.

She said “they’ve practically taken away our soul, our soul being the values we’ve been treasuring all these years: rule of law, human rights,” adding that from now on, Hong Kong would be nothing but another mainland Chinese city.

Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung echoed that sentiment, saying Hong Kong had entered a period of “One Country, One System”. He said that even though the city had entered a “dark period”, the people of Hong Kong would still triumph.

Civic Party lawmaker Dennis Kwok appealed for international attention.

“I urge you to look at Hong Kong and understand the consequences when someone switches off the light on Hong Kong,” he said. “The world needs to wake up because everyone has a stake here, whether you are an international business, whether you are an academic, a professor, a journalist, a student.”

“The air has gone out of Hong Kong today, and it is suffocating.”