《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Lawmakers brawl in Hong Kong

INJURIES: Following the clashes with lawmakers Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung, six security staff were stretchered out to ambulances and taken to hospital

/ AFP, HONG KONG

Two lawmakers who want Hong Kong to split from China wrestled with security in the legislature yesterday, with one of them dragged from the chamber and security staff left injured, as fears grow Beijing will step in over the saga.

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Widespread concerns that China is tightening its grip on the territory are fueling an independence movement in Hong Kong.

In the third consecutive week of chaos in the Legislative Council, pro-independence lawmakers Baggio Leung （梁頌恆） and Yau Wai-ching （游蕙禎） entered the chamber despite being banned from doing so, pending the result of a judicial review into whether they can take up their seats.

Yau ran up to a table at the front, set up her own microphone and proceeded to read out her oath.

She was then surrounded by female security personnel and carried from the chamber when she tried to resist.

After also trying to take his oath, Leung was flanked by other pro-democracy lawmakers who pushed and shoved against at least five security officers who surrounded them in a cordon and tried to push them out.

The meeting was adjourned and moved to a smaller conference room, prompting another clash when Yau, Leung and a group of supporters tried to push their way in, shouting: “One, two, three, go” as they tried to barge through the doors.

Six security staff were injured, stretchered out to ambulances and taken to hospital. The police were called in after the chaos.

Leung blamed the decision to bar him and Yau from the Legislative Council as being the catalyst for the clash.

“The president and the secretariat [of the council] should take full responsibility” for what happened, he told reporters.

Yau and Leung won their seats in elections last month, in which a number of new lawmakers advocating self-determination or independence swept to victory, but they are yet to be sworn in.

Their oath-taking was put on hold and they have been barred from meetings, pending a judicial review into their first attempt at taking the pledge three weeks ago.

At that ceremony, they draped themselves in “Hong Kong is not China” flags and altered the wording of their pledges, including derogatory terms and expletives.

The judicial review, brought by Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying （梁振英） and the justice secretary, into whether they should be disqualified is to take place at the High Court today.

There are growing concerns that Beijing might issue its own interpretation of the territory’s constitution — the Basic Law — in a bid to bar the two lawmakers from the legislature.

Leung said on Tuesday he could not rule out the possibility that Beijing might step in.

He also said that “other incidents” would be triggered in the coming days because of Yau and Leung’s behavior, without elaborating.

Asked whether she was concerned about Beijing issuing its own interpretation of the Basic Law, Yau said: “My concern is the destruction of ‘one country two systems.’ It means the dictatorship of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] government will come to Hong Kong, which no Hong Kong people want to see.”

Legislative Council President Andrew Leung （梁智鴻） condemned Yau and Baggio Leung yesterday afternoon.

“These two lawmakers’ behavior ignored other people’s safety,” he told reporters, urging police to take follow-up action.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES