Hong Kong pro-independence party formally outlawed in first such move since handover

 

Andy Chan, founder of the Hong Kong National Party, speaks during a luncheon at the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) in Hong Kong, China, August 14, 2018. Paul Yeung/Pool via REUTERS

 

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong authorities formally banned on Monday a group promoting independence from China - the first outlawing of a political organisation since Britain handed its former colony back to Chinese rule in 1997.

 

The city's Secretary for Security John Lee announced the ban on the Hong Kong National Party in a brief statement published in the government's gazette, 10 days after the party submitted arguments against the move.

 

Lee ordered the ban under Hong Kong's Societies Ordinance, a previously little noticed colonial-era law that requires all social groups and organisations to register with the police.

 

The law allows the government to ban groups "in the interests of national security, public order or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others".

 

Lee later told reporters that the two-year-old group was prepared to use "all methods" to forge independence, which posed a threat to national security and broke the Basic Law, the mini-constitution that governs Hong Kong's relations with China.

 

"It has a clear agenda in making Hong Kong a republic," Lee said.

 

Lee also said the group had spread "hatred and discrimination against mainland Chinese".

 

The authorities could not rule out action against other groups, including those promoting "self determination" as well as full independence, he said.

 

Hong Kong's nascent independence movement shows little sign of generating widespread public support but the government's move in July to announce it was considering a ban on the Hong Kong National Party propelled its leader, Andy Chan, to prominence.

 

Hong Kong is governed under a "one country, two systems" principle which allows the global financial hub a high degree of autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed in China, including an independent legal system and freedoms of speech and assembly.

 

The 28-year-old Chan has been widely quoted in local and international media in recent weeks. In August, he spoke at Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondent's Club, a move condemned by the Chinese Foreign Ministry and locally-based Chinese officials.

 

"I will never stop in my pursuit of freedom, human rights, equality and dignity," Chan told Reuters earlier.

 

Chan declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Some media reports said he was considering a legal appeal.

 

Local government efforts to find ways of cracking down on the independence movement follows a warning last year from President Xi Xinping during a visit to the city that any attempt to endanger China's sovereignty crossed a "red line".

 

China's perceived tightening grip over the city has stoked tensions in recent years, including the "Occupy Central" movement in 2014 that blocked major roads for nearly three months in a failed bid to pressure Beijing to allow full democracy.

 

(Reporting By Greg Torode and Clare Jim in Hong Kong; Editing by Michael Perry)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-09-24

Not going to make 50 years are they!

 'pressure Beijing to allow'

one does not  pressure Beijing.

 

Oh well, if they ban it, it will probably just go away then. That usually works; drugs, guns, booze......................................................

Maybe if the perfidious British had actually given the colony full democracy prior to the handover the dynamics of all of this would have been very different.

Had Beijing inherited a fully democratic HK, I truly believe that would have been a whole lot harder to dismantle.

Edited September 24, 20187 yr by GinBoy2