China’s Taiwan Affairs Office has criticised a Taiwanese party for inviting Hong Kong lawmakers who support self-determination to attend a forum next week.

The New Power Party last week announced that lawmakers such as Nathan Law Kwun-chung, Edward Yiu Chung-yim and Eddie Chu Hoi-dick will attend the forum on self-determination between January 7 and 8. They will be joined by their assistants, activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung and the party’s own Taiwanese lawmakers.

Lawmakers Eddie Chu and Nathan Law. File Photo: Stanley Leung/HKFP.

The Office’s spokesman An Fengshan told a reporter at the pro-Beijing Ta Kung Pao: “A small group of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces planning to link up with ‘Hong Kong independence [forces]’ to split the country – it is impossible for it to succeed.”

An then cited a poem by Mao Zedong as saying: “In this small world, some flies hit the wall” – he said that they would crash and bleed.

Though some lawmakers of the New Power Party have publicly said they support Taiwanese independence, none of the invited Hong Kong lawmakers have said they support independence for the city.

Huang Kuo-chang (middle) of the New Power Party. Photo: Facebook.

Huang Kuo-chang, a lawmaker of the New Power Party and a speaker at the forum, questioned the strong reaction from China.

“Of course, any link to democratic forces is a thorn in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party,” he said on Facebook.

When ousted lawmakers Baggio Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching visited Taiwan in October to discuss localist social movements, the Office also released a similar statement saying that the collaboration between Hong Kong and Taiwan independence activists to split China will not be successful and will be condemned.