Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow banned from March by-election

21-year-old Demosisto co-founder’s bid to become Hong Kong’s youngest legislator ever comes to an abrupt end

Hong Kong authorities have disqualified 21-year-old pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow from a March by-election, claiming that her advocacy of “self-determination” contradicts the territory’s Basic Law, which codifies China’s sovereignty over Hong Kong.

Chow was vying for a city legislative council seat vacated after fellow Demosisto co-founder Nathan Law and five other elected legislators were ousted from office in 2017 for failing to swear a scripted oath of allegiance to “the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.”

“My campaign is about more than one seat,” Chow told the Hong Kong Free Press. “It’s about the balance of power between the pro-Beijing establishment and the entire opposition.”

Chow rose to national prominence as an organizer during the 2014 umbrella movement, which mobilized disaffected young people in mass protests against Beijing’s exertion of control over local elections.

With much of the top opposition leadership currently serving jail time for offenses related to the pro-democracy demonstrations, Chow opted to postpone her final year at Baptist University and renounce her British citizenship in order to run for office. Had she been elected, she would have become Hong Kong’s youngest lawmaker ever. Education, land-use planning, and democratic advocacy were the core priorities of her short-lived campaign.

“Any suggestion of Hong Kong independence, self-determination, independence as a choice, or self-autonomy, is not in line with Basic Law requirements, and deviates from the important principle of ‘one country two systems,” said Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam.

“If a person advocates or promotes self-determination or independence by any means,” the government warned in a statement, “he or she cannot possibly uphold the Basic Law or fulfill his or her duties as a legislator.”

Demosisto’s Joshua Wong, a central activist in the umbrella movement, lamented that the government’s decision threatens to disqualify not only Chow “but all members of Demosisto, and even the entire younger generation.”

The party is organizing a rally outside of government headquarters on Sunday afternoon to protest the disqualification.

[Image via Demosisto]