Wen Wei Po names "unpatriotic" legislators

The Central Government has named several legislators whom it deems to be shirking their oaths to the Hong Kong SAR and to uphold the Basic Law. Pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po on 25 February accused Democratic Party Legislators Szeto Wah and Martin Lee Chu-ming, along with Emily Lau Wai-hing of The Frontier and Legal-sector representative Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee of not meeting the legal criteria of "patriots" established by Xinhua on 24 February. The paper argues that they are not fit to hold public office, in an attempt to discredit them and so deter people from voting for pro-democratic candidates in the September Legislative Council elections.

Martin Lee reacted with the statement that the accusations were rubbish. "The state mouthpieces have only sought to split the public. I really encourage people to file charges, as it is the only way to judge whether we have faked our oaths." Similarly, Executive Councillor Tsang Yok-sing, the former leader of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, said he did not believe any legislators had broken their oaths and said there were procedures in the Basic Law and through the courts to deal with them if they had. "Merely calling for the end of one-party rule does not mean anything. It is another matter if someone uses [such a call] to subvert the central government", he said.

Margaret Ng said Xinhua's checklist of unpatriotic behaviour should be disregarded. Emily Lau said individual democrats were being singled out for attack by Beijing, which wanted to marginalise them.

The tone of Beijing's offerings on patriotism has grown more and more forceful and direct in recent days. Perhaps this underlies the fact that there is a lot at stake here, both in terms of Hong Kong's constitutional development and in terms of the political face of the Central Government. Beijing has revealed its political fears about democracy in Hong Kong, fears that universal suffrage would entail an administration and a legislature led by people who might challenge the Central Government. To this end the Central Government accepts the need to apparently embrace constitutional reform whilst ensuring that any future government cabinet would comprise "patriots as the main body", and thus would maintain a pro-Beijing stance.

The Chief Secretary for the Administration Donald Tsang said yesterday that most people in Hong Kong agree that the main body of administrators in Hong Kong must be patriots. He stated, "[Voters] are agreed that those who are now serving Hong Kong should not do anything that would jeopardise the interests of the country and Hong Kong, that they will also uphold the Chinese race and do whatever is favourable to both Hong Kong and our country. Everybody fully understands this concept."

However Tsang refused to be drawn into the debate of whether any serving Legislative Council members were unpatriotic.