‘BARGAINING CHIP’:The ‘Mingpao’ said Beijing would see intervention by Taiwan in a Hong Kong affair as a precursor to collaboration among independence groups
Taipei Times
Date: Oct 23, 2016
By: Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA
The Hong Kong government on Friday issued a statement calling on Taiwan to refrain from interfering in
Hong Kong lawmakers Sixtus “Baggio” Leung, left, and Yau Wai-ching, center, sit next to Hong Kong Indigenous spokesperson Ray Wong at a forum at National Taiwan University in Taipei yesterday. Photo: CNA
the territory’s internal affairs.
The statement, delivered by a government spokesman at a press conference, was apparently issued in response to comments by Mainland Affairs Council spokesperson Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正), who said the council would be closely following Hong Kong politics to see whether the legislative seats of Sixtus “Baggio” Leung (梁頌恆) and Yau Wai-ching (游蕙禎) would be declared invalid.
Leung and Yau refused to state the oath correctly — in essence refusing to pledge allegiance to the People’s Republic of China — at their inauguration as legislators, and the secretary-general of the Hong Kong Legislative Council refused to accept their oaths.
Leung and Yau’s action is seen as being part of a pro-Hong Kong independence stance.
The Hong Kong government spokesperson on Friday said that “since the [Hong Kong’s] return [to China], the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong has been given great autonomy under the Basic Law, fully embodying the success of the ‘one country, two systems’ approach.” [FULL STORY]
