Leaders in Hong Kong disqualified a dozen pro-democracy candidates from seeking office and delayed the city\u2019s elections for a year on Friday. Hong Kong\u2026<\/b>
\nLeaders in Hong Kong disqualified a dozen pro-democracy candidates from seeking office and delayed the city\u2019s elections for a year on Friday.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam made the announcement during a Friday press conference, saying coronavirus had made it impossible to hold a fair election, the Washington Post reported. Rather than maintaining the legislative councils\u2019 current makeup until the next election, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will be selecting replacements.
\u201cWe have made the decision to postpone the election for one year,\u201d Lam said. \u201cWe would not be able to meet the requirements of an open and fair election.\u201d
Lam\u2019s move came less than a day after city authorities banned a dozen pro-democracy candidates from seeking election, saying they were not fit for office, according to the BBC.
The city listed four criteria it said would disqualify future candidates, according to the BBC.
Secretary of State Mike Pomeo officially informed the U. S. Congress that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China on May 27, days after the CCP imposed a national security rule which allows it to prosecute Hong Kong residents for seeking to secede from China or subvert the authority of the communist regime.
\u201cBeijing\u2019s disastrous decision is only the latest in a series of actions that fundamentally undermine Hong Kong\u2019s autonomy and freedoms and China\u2019s own promises to the Hong Kong people under the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a U. N.-filed international treaty,\u201d Pompeo said in a statement.
The U. S. has since ended its special treatment of Hong Kong, rescinding the special economic protections it enjoyed thanks to its status as a Western-style democracy.<\/p>\n