2014’s Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong was an uprising over the Chinese government’s announcement that it would exercise a veto over who could stand for election to the Hong Kong legislature (as Boss Tweed said, “I don’t care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating.”).
Now the other shoe has dropped: six candidates for the legislature have been disqualified from the ballot for being “pro-independence or ‘localist.'” The bureaucracy is also exercising a censor’s veto over the campaign materials, suppressing candidate pamphlets containing these “disqualifying” terms:
自主未來 An autonomous future
自決主權治權 Self-determined sovereignty and governance
民主自決 Democratic self-determination
城巿自立 Self-sufficient city
自決運動 Self-determination movement
前途自決 Self-determined future
推動民間公投 Advocate universal suffrage
中國經濟壓力下難以自主 Under China’s economic pressure, autonomy is at stake
國防外交外真正自治 Aside from military and diplomacy, a genuine self-governing entity
Hong Kong Election Officials Disqualify Six Legislative Candidates for Not Being ‘Loyal’ Enough to China
[Oiwan Lam/Global Voices]
(Image: Hong Kongnese Students Demand True, Fair, & Free Election in Hong Kong, Quinn Dombrowski, CC-BY-SA)
