The stern message came after young pro-democracy activists won seats on Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo).
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Many residents see the 79 days of student-led “Umbrella Revolution” protests in 2014 as a turning point in the city’s politics even though Beijing gave no ground.
Despite the disqualification of six pro-democracy election candidates from the election in July on the grounds that they supported independence, preliminary results showed several localists and young democrats likely winning seats.
A report by Reuters also revealed that Chinese enterprises in Hong Kong were “instructing staff how to vote” before the elections, with employees asked to “vote for patriotic candidates who ‘love China and love Hong Kong'”.
Pro-establishment lawmakers like Elizabeth Quat said she hoped the issue of splitting from China wouldn’t enter the legislature or it could damage Hong Kong’s economic interests.
Ballot boxes at the central counting station in Hong Kong on Monday.
Despite of the presence of Chinese SAR, Hong Kong has a principle of running as “one country, two systems”.
Beijing underscored its “resolute opposition” to any form of “Hong Kong independence” activities, either within or outside of the special administrative region’s Legislative Council, an official statement said on Monday.
His constituency will elect six seats and he was now in second place, with 90 per cent of votes counted, the results showed.
“I think Hong Kongers really wanted change”, AFP quoted Mr Law, 23, as saying. “People are voting for a new way and new future of our democratic movement”.
It was especially hard for any pro-independence candidate to win because the Chinese government forced all candidates to sign a pledge accepting that Hong Kong belonged to China.
Hong Kong: Young Hong Kong independence activists calling for a complete break from China stood in major elections for the first time today, the biggest vote since 2014 pro-democracy rallies.
Only 35 out of the 70 Legislative Council seats are directly elected by the city’s 3.8 million registered voters.
Another new face is that of outspoken social activist Eddie Chu Hoi-dick, who won an unexpected 84,000 votes (more than anyone else) in a landslide victory to take a LegCo seat, despite the fact that he had no party backing him up.
Hong Kong’s unpopular leader Leung Chun-ying, seen by critics as a stooge of Beijing, said Tuesday, September 6, that all lawmakers must abide by the Basic Law.
Pro-democracy candidates needed to secure at least 24 of 70 seats in the Legislative Council in order to block government attempts to enact unpopular or controversial legislation, such as a Beijing-backed revamp of how the city’s top leader is chosen that sparked the 2014 protests.
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