Hong Kong Needs a Champion

When he retired from Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal in 2012, Justice Kemal Bokhary predicted that a “storm of unprecedented ferocity” was gathering over the city’s judicial system and rule of law. Though dismissed as alarmist at the time, he’s turned out to be right. And all of Hong Kong’s friends -- both within and abroad -- should be paying attention.

The latest blow fell last week, when the Standing Committee of China’s parliament intervened in the controversy surrounding the swearing-in of two young and rebellious lawmakers in Hong Kong. The pair had deliberately sabotaged their first oath-taking by using insulting language and displaying banners that read “Hong Kong is not China.” While egregious, their behavior could have been dealt with under the Hong Kong legislature’s own disciplinary procedures. Indeed, the case was under review in the Hong Kong courts. Yet the Standing Committee went ahead and barred the lawmakers from retaking their oaths, interfering directly in Hong Kong's judicial processes.