LAST UPDATE | 11 Nov 2020

HONG KONG’S PRO-DEMOCRACY legislators have resigned en masse after the city’s government moved to disqualify four of them.

The pro-democracy camp announced the decision in a news conference, hours after the Hong Kong government said it would disqualify Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung from the legislature.

The disqualifications came after China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which held meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, passed a resolution saying those who support Hong Kong’s independence or refuse to acknowledge China’s sovereignty over the city, as well as commit acts that threaten national security or ask external forces to interfere in its affairs, should be disqualified.

“Today we will resign from our positions, because our partners, our colleagues, have been disqualified by the central government’s ruthless move,” Wu Chi-wai, convener of the pro-democracy camp, said at the news conference.

“We are facing a lot of difficulties in the coming future for the fight of democracy, but we will never, never give up,” he said.

Wu said the pro-democracy legislators will hand in their resignation letters on Thursday.

During the news conference, pro-democracy members chanted while holding hands.