A top Beijing official last week claimed pro-independence advocate Andy Chan’s controversial talk at the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) was undoubtedly illegal.
Well, say hello to more doubts, expressed today by no less than the vice chairwoman of the Basic Law Committee, Maria Tam, a staunch pro-Beijing supporter, who spoke to RTHK radio.
According to the public broadcaster, Tam — agreeing with other legal experts, including executive councillor and lawmaker Regina Ip — said there was not enough evidence to prosecute Chan under the city’s Crimes Ordinance.
Tam’s comments follow remarks last week by the director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office Zhang Xiaoming, who said Chan, the convenor of the Hong Kong National Party, could be charged for sedition under Article 9 of the ordinance.
Zhang had also warned the FCC — which defied pressured by Chinese and Hong Kong officials in holding the lunchtime talk last Tuesday — could face prosecution too.
But Tam said there was no evidence to suggest Chan’s pro-separatism speech had incited action.
“As far as I can see, the element of hated, contempt or disaffection is there but you need a little but more evidence to show its effect on other people and I am not in possession of any evidence to that extent … there is no case for us now to pursue”, she said, according to the public broadcaster.
According to RTHK, Tam also criticized Chan for sending a letter on the weekend to United States President Donald Trump, calling for Hong Kong and China to be kicked out of the World Trade Organization.
The letter was released on the Facebook page of the Hong Kong National Party, which faces an unprecedented ban for its pro-independence stance.
https://www.facebook.com/hknationalparty/posts/900511220147833?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDDxT-R175ZJtbU1mJFrVbggaGIWzWTnlUstbRxTfGUJe2P_MNRntwRCj6ECkt9nC4t3B535HxS43UBLdPTpWa46VyrVwZ4sKI951HrJsIg6G5HY1QmCkbwknr7Rj-U5KXObnL-FaxT&__tn__=-R
In it, Chan calls Hong Kong a “mere puppet” of China and says allowing it to stay in the WTO as an independent member gave China an unfair advantage.
Chan also urged Trump to the US to scrap the US-Hong Kong Policy Act, legislation that allows the territory to be treated as a separate economic entity from China, so long as it remains its high degree of autonomy.
“In view of total submission to its colonial master by the Hong Kong government at the expense of its autonomy and the fundamental rights of its citizens, Hong Kong no longer deserves any such special status,” he wrote.
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