Hong Kong Govt Issues Arrest Warrants for Exiled Activists Over ‘Sham’ Election Boycott

HONG KONG, CHINA - DECEMBER 19: Police officers stand guard outside a polling station on D
Louise Delmotte/Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

The Beijing controlled puppet government in Hong Kong has issued arrest warrants for exiled activists, including UK based Nathan Law, ahead of the “sham” election for the former UK colony’s Legislative Council.

The first election for Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) since Communist China’s crackdown on the freedom movement was held on Sunday. The vote has been widely criticised as a “sham” and been dubbed a “selection” as pro-democracy campaigners — many of whom are in prison or exile — were prohibited from participating, with only pro-Beijing “patriots” allowed on the ballots.

Only 20 of the 90 seats were up for a vote, with thirty seats being filled by picks from business and trade leaders and the remaining 40 to be handpicked by the Beijing controlled Election Committee.

The election saw — perhaps unsurprisingly, given the circumstances Beijing created for the vote — pro-Beijing candidates winning amid historic-low turnout. Analysis by UK broadcaster the BBC indicates many in Hong Kong have little faith in the so-called democratic process after free speech rights and election laws were overhauled by the Chinese Communist Party.

Pro-freedom activists and former politicians who escaped prison by fleeing the city, such as the Umbrella Movement’s Nathan Law, had called on citizens to hand in blank or invalid ballots to protest the election. In response, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hong Kong issued arrest warrants for Law, former member of the Central and Western District Council Ted Hui — now based in Australia — and five other activists, the Hong Kong-based Standard reported.

Ahead of the election, Law, a former legislator himself, wrote: “My guess is that election turnout will be low. Not because voters are satisfied with the government but rather because they will be refusing to assist Beijing’s attempts to recoin democracy in its own authoritarian terms.

“Even though Hong Kong people are silenced, they persist in their passion to stand up for democracy.”

The ICAC also charged two people for sharing a post from Hui, in which he called for people to hand in blank ballots or to boycott the election. The state-run CCP mouthpiece The Global Times claimed that it was the fist time that such charges have been levied since Beijing changed the election rules in May.

On top of that, authorities in Hong Kong have written to Britain’s The Sunday Times newspaper and The Wall Street Journal claiming that critical coverage of the election could amount to incitement, according to The Telegraph.

Speaking exclusively to Breitbart London, the founder and chairman of Hong Kong Watch, Benedict Rogers said: “This so-called election is a complete and blatant sham and fraud” and that the arrest warrants issued against pro-democracy activists was an “absurd but menacing move”.

“The CCP rigged it entirely, by reducing the number of directly elected seats, increasing the number of seats effectively appointed by the regime, requiring candidates to swear an oath of allegiance to the CCP, thereby excluding pro-democracy candidates, allowing residents of mainland China a vote and making it a criminal offence to encourage voters to boycott or spoil their ballot papers,” Rogers said.

“But it looks like turnout is the lowest ever, because Hong Kongers are wise people and they don’t want to legitimise this sham,” he added.

“The international community, and especially the UK, has a responsibility not to recognise today’s sham election, and to act to help Hong Kong, including sanctioning those in Beijing and Hong Kong responsible for destroying the city’s freedoms and autonomy, and entities that have facilitated that destruction.”

Kurt Zindulka / Breitbart News

Exclusive: CCP Has ‘Annihilated’ Hong Kong’s Freedoms, Says Exiled Activist Nathan Law

Earlier this week, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FDOC) issued a report outlining the continuing violations of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong, which guaranteed legal independence for the former UK colony from Beijing until 2047 under the so-called “One Country, Two Systems” agreement.

In a fowl to the report, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss wrote: “Just over a year since the introduction of the National Security Law, the mainland Chinese and Hong Kong authorities have used the law and related institutions against all opposition, free press and civil society in Hong Kong. This curtailing of space for the free expression of alternative views continues to weaken checks and balances on executive power.

“With China now in a state of ongoing non-compliance with its international obligations under the UN-registered Sino-British Joint Declaration, the UK will continue to work with international partners to hold China to its legally binding obligations on Hong Kong,” she added.

Speaking to Breitbart London in June, Nathan Law said that China has embarked on the “annihilation” of the agreement, saying that Beijing was seeking to transform it into “One Country, One System” under communist rule.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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